Flooding

In 2021 The Saugus & Pines River Advocates for Regional Resilience (SPRARR) was formed to consider the current conditions and future resiliency to the communities surrounding the Saugus River Watershed using the MC-FRM modeling tools. A study was conducted by the Army Corp of Engineers 3- decades ago that suggested a myriad of adaptation measures for the entire region including a flood barrier across the mouth of the river between the Point of Pines in Revere and the shoreline of Lynn as well as a series of tide gates, and sluice gates, dikes. The funding was not secured after 6 years of community stakeholder meetings and planning due to a shift in preferred strategy of strictly nature-based solutions.

The 5- resiliency focused communities have rejoined together with MassDOT, DCR and MBTA to gather data and collaborate on how to advance the regions goals for flood protection starting with a grant form MAPC for Accelerating Climate Resiliency and continuing the work supported by and MVP Grant to conduce a Vulnerability and Adaptations study collectively. The team is getting stronger despite the capacity of the working group. Everyone is contributing and committed to strategically identifying adaptations the advance the inherent need for flood protections.

Each community has identified the most critical infrastructure and we are working with Wood Hole Group to document the elevations of each structure so it can be compared with the MC-FRM predictions for sea level rise. In this process we also recognized that in additional to the threat of coastal flooding risks many of these communities are also at risk for storm water flooding due to antiquated infrastructure.