Norwich Public Utilities Awarded State Grant For Climate Project

NORWICH, CT — The state has awarded $8.8 million in grants to support 21 climate resilience plans and projects in 17 municipalities. Norwich Public Utilities received two grants totaling $1.135 million.

The first grant, worth $650,000, will go toward designing and scoping a wall to protect the Bean Hill Substation from river flooding. The substation serves the trauma center, industrial park, and 6,000 residential customers in Norwich.

The second grant, worth $450,000, is to conduct numerous site and engineering studies, along with necessary federal grant application studies, related to relocating the Shipping Street sewage pump station out of the floodway of the Thames River.

The grants are through through the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's Climate Resilience Fund.

“Connecticut is already playing a leading role in addressing the challenge of climate change because making those investments means healthier people and a healthier environment, as well as new business opportunities,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. “Planning for climate resilience requires preserving and protecting what we love about this state so that we can continue to be a great place for families with clean air and water and thriving communities.”

In this first round of funding, more than 90 percent of the funds will go to vulnerable communities that will feel the effects of climate change first and worst.

By 2050, Connecticut is projected to experience stronger storms, longer, more frequent droughts, up to 20 inches of sea level rise along the coast, increased frequency of coastal flooding with levels like those seen in Superstorm Sandy every five to ten years, and an average of 20 additional days a year that rose above 90 degrees, according to the statement. Connecticut had multiple heat waves in summer 2022 and record-breaking rainfall in 2021.