Climate change resiliency projects in three Maine coastal counties will share nearly $9 million in federal funds, including work to the Scarborough Marsh, state and federal officials announced Monday.
The Scarborough Marsh is slated to get $1.4. million, with $4.5 million going to replace culverts in Brunswick and in the Washington County town of Perry.
In addition, nearly $3 million will pay for a new bridge and the conservation of 18 acres of coastal marshland in Wells.
The funds come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act and will target the projects in York, Cumberland and Washington counties.
The money is part of more than $50 billion earmarked for climate resiliency.
The Earth Day announcement comes just months after Maine sustained significant damage from powerful storms, including two in January that destroyed coastal infrastructure vital to the state’s fishing industry.
“What you’re seeing here is just part of something we’re seeing across the whole country,” said Arati Prabhakar, assistant to the president for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This last year in the United States we had 28 climate fueled disasters that each caused more than $1 billion in damage. It’s the largest number in a single year ever.”
In Maine, there have been six declared federal disasters in the last 12 months, more than any year in state history, said Hannah Pingree, director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
The coastal storms, and one in December that impacted inland Maine, caused more than $90 million in damage to public infrastructure and millions more in damage to private homes, businesses and property, she said.
“Mainers across our state from Old Orchard Beach to Farmington to Eastport are still working to recover,” she said.
The newly announced federal funds for the Scarborough Marsh project will be supplemented by $2.5 million from 10 other state and federal agencies, according to the Scarborough Land Trust.
The work will include restoration projects to repair damage done by agriculture, transportation and other uses, along with improving public access.
During a tour of the area, Steve Pinette a hydrogeologist and Scarborough Land Trust Board member, said the 3,100-acre marsh is home to 70 species of birds, small mammals and a variety of fish.
It’s the largest contiguous salt marsh in the state.
But over the years, drainage ditches, roads and railroads have degraded the marsh.
“Today, we’re in a position to start restoring it to a healthier marsh,” he said.
In Brunswick, the funds will pay for the Coombs Road culvert replacement and in Perry, the money will pay to replace the Corbett Brook culvert, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
At the Wells Reserve, federal funds will be used to build a new bridge “that will withstand future rising seas and storms, develop a plan to restore tidal habitats for a range of wildlife species and protect a beautiful keystone parcel,” according to a statement from Paul Dest, executive director of the Wells Reserve.
