April 22 — A group of federal officials are visiting Scarborough today to announce $123 million in funding for coastal habitat restoration and conservation to increase community resilience to climate change, including $10.6 million for local projects in Brunswick , Scarborough and Wells.
Local projects include:
— $1.4 million to restore degraded areas, improve public access and allow migration into Scarborough Marsh.
— $4.5 million to replace old, undersized culverts that restrict tidal flow and fish passage in Brunswick and Perry.
— $2.9 million to restore tidal hydrology and allow marsh migration in Wells.
“America’s coastal communities are on the front lines of climate change,” said Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “We can harness the power of nature to reduce the impacts of sea level rise, storms and erosion.”
The funding is part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Reducing Inflation Act, which together are investing more than $50 billion in climate change resilience and adaptation. The projects aim to increase the resilience of communities to climate change and extreme weather events through habitat restoration, planning, conservation and research.
Restoring and conserving ecologically significant ecosystems, such as wetlands, will help reduce the impacts of coastal hazards, such as flooding and climate change, on properties and infrastructure, said Jainey Bavishi, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and the Atmosphere. It will also provide economic benefits to coastal communities, she said.
All state-funded projects are now required by law to take future sea level rise into account in infrastructure design standards – 1.5 feet by 2050 and 4 feet by 2100, according to the Climate Council from Maine. And some, like a $33.5 million bridge project in Woolwich, are also easing tidal restrictions to promote flood prevention and alleviate the impact of sea level rise and storm surges.
This story will be updated.
