Massachusetts officials have announced that $273,516 have been award to four stormwater coalitions to help communities meet their stormwater management requirements.
The projects, selected by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), were awarded to help cities and towns meet both existing and upcoming requirements.
“Our Administration is proud to partner with cities and towns across the Commonwealth to fund efforts in these 103 coalition communities to reduce pollution from stormwater discharges,” says Governor Charlie Baker. “These grants play a crucial role in helping communities meet stormwater standards and in educating the public about how they can play a role in reducing pollutants in our stormwater systems.”
The funding will enable Massachusetts municipalities to expand their efforts to meet Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit requirements and reduce stormwater pollution through coordinated partnerships. There are more than 260 Massachusetts municipalities subject to the current MS4 permit, issued jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and MassDEP, which took effect on July 1, 2018.
“It is important for MS4 communities to band together to address stormwater problems as the pollutants are not contained to a single community, but impact waterways in numerous communities,” says Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card. “This funding will enable groups of municipalities to expand their efforts to meet MS4 requirements and reduce stormwater pollution through coordinated partnerships that emphasize resource sharing.”
Permit requirements that the MS4 communities must meet include the development and implementation of a public education program, adopting more stringent local development rules, locating and removing pollutants that are illegally entering municipal stormwater systems, and installing stormwater management systems.
“Stormwater management efforts start locally but have major positive impacts on waterways and watersheds all across the Commonwealth,” says MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg. “These grants will produce virtual training sessions to help with development, place map-based tools online to assist municipalities, utilize aerial imagery to collect data on impervious cover, and develop an interactive web-based toolkit with community characteristics and needs in mind.”
The groups receiving funding are:
- Pioneer Valley Planning Commission – $83,895
The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission will host a series of virtual trainings on stormwater management for the developer audience in the Connecticut River Stormwater Committee and Neponset Stormwater Partnership regions. The trainings will promote site planning and design that meets new stormwater standards and integrates with climate change considerations. Currently available tools and incentives will also be highlighted through the trainings, and all the sessions will be recorded and edited for ease of use with developer audiences in other regions across the state. - Metropolitan Area Planning Council – $56,800
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council will develop an online, map-based tool to assist municipalities with identifying sites for green infrastructure by evaluating both technical considerations (such as prevalence of impervious surface areas) and equity considerations (such as proximity to Environmental Justice populations). Key components of the project include working with a core team of municipal staff across multiple watersheds, stakeholder engagement to inform the tool development, and providing training materials to assist tool users. - Charles River Watershed Association – $61,970
The Charles River Watershed Association will partner with the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Land for a land data development project. The project will use high resolution 2021 aerial imagery and locally available impervious cover data to derive land use and impermeable cover for the entire Charles River watershed. This data is critical to Charles River communities’ ability to successfully develop and implement Phosphorus Control Plans, that require estimates of phosphorus loads based on land use at near current conditions. - Merrimack Valley Planning Commission – $70,500
The Merrimack Valley Planning Commission will develop an interactive web-based toolkit to facilitate the assemblage and dissemination of MS4 relevant model code language specific to community characteristics and needs. The toolkit will exist as a meta-compilation of model language resources with statewide applicability for a simplified and streamlined code revision experience.
The grants are funded through the Commonwealth’s Fiscal Year 2023 capital plan’s MS4 Municipal Assistance Grant Program.
