This is a subject raised (far too) briefly at our environmental/climate change meeting this month. Ruth From: "Kelley, Craig" <ckelley@cambridgema.gov> Date: Monday, June 24, 2019 at 11:39 AM Subject: Mystic River Climate Resiliency grant on the Council's Monday night agenda Hey Everyone: I thought you might be interested in the Manager’s request (pasted at this end of this email) to appropriate a $350,000 grant to help address climate change-related flooding dangers along the Mystic River. The picture to the right has a dot where the Amelia Earhart Dam separates the Mystic River from Boston Harbor, but the dam has limitations (it was not designed to keep out storm surge, for example, in a climate-changed future) and upriver precipitation in the 76 square mile watershed can create flooding problems before the water even gets to the three pumps at the dam. Learn more about Mystic River resiliency issues here. I am sure this request will pass so there is no need to do anything, but I thought you’d be interested in the work we’re doing, in collaboration with our neighbors, on this resiliency issue. I also think it’s informative to illustrate how important grant funding is for all sorts of local governance programs, from resiliency planning to affordable housing programs. At some point, we really need to rethink how we fund regional issues in a strong home rule state like Massachusetts because a dollar raised (and spent) downstream in Cambridge may be far less effective at protecting Cambridge than that same dollar raised in Cambridge but spent in, say, Winchester. And no issues are more regional than resiliency planning and climate change. Anyway, if you’d like to come talk about this Council issue at City Council, you can sign up by phone between 9 AM and 3 PM on Monday at 617-349-4280 or on line via this link and in person from 5-6 PM at the Sullivan Chambers at City Hall. Public comment, limited to three minutes per speaker, starts at 5:30(ish) and lasts at least until 6:00, though if there are enough speakers we often go later. At the end of public comment, people who missed the sign-in window are generally asked if they’d like to speak anyway. The entire Council may be emailed at Council@Cambridgema.gov. Thanks a lot and have a great day. Craig All emails to and from this City address should be considered to be subject to Massachusetts’s Public Records laws. To be removed from this list, click here. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may be interested in it. Also, I have scheduled office hours in Central Square on Monday’s from 1-3 PM and Thursdays from 9:30-11:30 AM, but please email CKelley@Cambridgema.gov before coming to confirm before showing up. To the Honorable, the City Council: I am hereby requesting the appropriation of a grant from the State’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Regional Action Grant program in the amount of $350,000 to the Public Investment Fund Public Works Extraordinary Expenditures account. The grant was submitted by Cambridge on behalf of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC), which is a 14-member municipal partnership working on watershed-scale climate resiliency in the Mystic Watershed. The Collaborative launched in September 2018 and the member municipalities quickly identified stormwater management as a top goal. Building on the modelling work that Cambridge has done through our Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, the Collaborative developed a Mystic River watershed model to evaluate watershed wide scenarios involving de-paving, stormwater wetlands and active reservoir management to quantify the extent to which each action would reduce flooding. This grant will allow the Collaborative to identify and pursue site-specific green infrastructure opportunities in the individual communities for regional stormwater management and evaluate additional flood management strategies to mitigate precipitation flooding from the 10-year storm event in 2070. The grant will strengthen regional collaboration and was supported by The Barr Foundation, Arlington, Lexington, Malden, Medford, MAPC, Stoneham, Wakefield, Winchester and Woburn. The 25% match for the grant is being provided by the Barr Foundation through the Mystic River Watershed Association, so no city funds are required.
