Who will pay for a bridge to Masons Island?
I give the Stonington planning department great credit for commissioning a study, using federal money, that looks at the local dangers from and possible solutions to rising oceans.
A report from this study by an international consulting firm is due soon, but analysts already have been previewing their findings, with detailed flood prediction maps that show just how vulnerable the eastern Connecticut shoreline is becoming to coastal flooding.
Huge swaths of some of the most valuable and historical properties in Stonington, including neighborhood districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will become routinely, even annually, subject to flooding in the decades ahead, the consultants suggest.
Some of the most vulnerable assets in the town include its fire stations, sewage treatment plants and highways, like Route 1, Route 27 and, perhaps most imperiled of all, the low causeway that connects Masons Island with the mainland.
The report also will include proposed remediation, everything from putting sweeps on the bottom of house doors, to prevent flood waters from entering the building, to erecting flood gates on rivers and across large inland coves.
But many of the proposed solutions represent vast infrastructure investment.
Where will all that money come from?
I think it is worrisome that the town is run now by someone who supported a climate-change denier for president. The Trump administration is already busily dismantling environmental regulations and proposing budget cuts to programs that address just these kinds of issues.
As the waters rise — you can quite clearly see the change year to year on some flooding downtown Mystic streets — federal money to do something is drying up just as fast. The kind of federal flood study and remediation money Stonington is spending now will soon be a thing of the past.
Who will pay for remediation and preparedness, or, failing that, the cleanup and rebuilding? A lot of valuable, taxable property is going to go under. Don't take my word for it. Take a look at the preliminary analysis by Stonington's consultants on the town's website.
Look at the vulnerable causeway to Masons Island, for instance.
If there is no federal money available to replace this structure with a bridge, as consultants suggest is necessary, will the impoverished state cough some up? This seems dubious. Even if the state were flush, I am not sure northern residents would want to subsidize flood hardening projects for shoreline towns.
If there is no federal or state money available, will the town come to the rescue of one of its most valuable neighborhoods?
Will working-class households in Pawcatuck support using their tax dollars to build a new bridge to help those who have chosen to live on a gated island retreat? Never mind the island, what about the clear flooding risks in downtown Pawcatuck?
I will be curious to hear that debate when the time comes.
I checked in with Town Planner Keith Brynes to ask what's next, once the study is finished. He told me it will be reviewed by selectmen and other town departments. A plan of action has not yet been developed, he said, but could include incremental changes, incorporating suggestions, for instance, as the town does work on infrastructure at risk.
Certainly having a baseline analysis of the dangers and range of solutions is a good place to start.
I would urge the topic become part of the debate of the next race for selectmen.
Next time you see First Selectman Rob Simmons, you might ask him who he thinks will pay for a new bridge to Masons Island.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
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