The City of Revere has received state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) funding as part of a regional effort to help people and places prepare for extreme weather.
The Cities of Revere, Malden, and Everett, all longtime members of the RMC, are working with their coastal neighbors to the north, Saugus and Lynn. The cities secured $151,000 to begin work on a regional Saugus River Watershed Vulnerability and Adaptation Study to help these coastal communities manage coastal flood damage.
“As a longtime member of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative, I’ve witnessed firsthand how working with our neighbors can move critical projects forward,” said Elle Baker, Revere’s Open Space and Environmental Planner. “The $150,872 in MVP funds will help us work with our neighbors in the Saugus River Watershed to tackle our major coastal flood risks.”
In addition to the regional grants, Cambridge, Chelsea, Malden, Medford, and Revere received individual MVP grants to further flood and heat resilience projects.
The Mystic River Watershed Association announced that Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) cities and towns had secured a total of $8.6 million in state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) funding.. Of these funds, over $7 million were grants for multi-community projects, and nearly $1.6 million went to projects in individual municipalities. In addition, Congresswomen Katherine Clark and Ayanna Pressley and Congressman Seth Moulton are working to secure $12.2 million in Community Project grants through the FY2023 federal budget, bringing the total in new funding for heat and flood resilience to nearly $21 million.
Flooding from extreme rainfall events, storm surges on top of a rising sea level, and longer, more intense heat waves are climate impacts that don’t stop at municipal boundaries,” said John Walkey, Director of Waterfront and Climate Justice Initiatives at GreenRoots. “But they do tend to be felt worse in historically disinvested communities. We greatly appreciate that the MVP Program supports projects addressing social vulnerabilities from a regional perspective, as the communities of the RMC are doing.”
Each of the municipalities, including Revere, that championed these climate resilient projects is a founding member of the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC), a watershed-wide voluntary partnership focused on regional climate resilience. Convened by MyRWA in September 2018 and led by senior staff from 20 cities and towns and non-governmental partners, the Resilient Mystic Collaborative (RMC) focuses on managing flooding and extreme heat on a regional scale and increasing the resilience of our most vulnerable residents and workers to extreme weather. These projects are the result of years of analysis and design by both individual communities and multiple municipalities working collectively.
“Our communities are where climate resilience either happens or doesn’t,” said Julie Wormser, Senior Policy Advisor for the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA). “Years of collective research and planning are turning into on-the-ground projects that will make a real difference in people’s lives. These state and federal investments are both a recognition of and essential support for their great work.”
Following are the grants for projects involving Revere:
Envisioning Resilience in the North Suffolk Region through Community Preparedness. – $87,500 grant
Regional Saugus River Watershed Vulnerability and Adaptation Study –
$150,872 grant
Diamond Creek Catchment Improvements Investigation and Assessment
• $235,509 grant
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Original story HERE.