Andover, Lawrence Get over $270K For Shawsheen River Flood Resilience

WILLIAMSBURG, MA — The town of Andover and the city of Lawrence will receive over $270,000 in state funding to work jointly to improve the Shawsheen River's nature-based flood resilience, the administration of Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito announced Tuesday.

The grant for $271,705 to Andover and Lawrence was part of $32.8 million in grants designed to help cities and towns build local resilience to climate change as part of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs' (EEA) Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program.

The program provides funding to help address climate change impacts like inland flooding, increase in storm events, sea level rise, drought and extreme temperatures.

During this round of MVP funding, a total of 73 municipal projects received grants, along with six communities tasked with identifying potential projects.

This was the sixth round of MVP funding since the project launched in 2017 as part of Baker's Executive Order 569, a climate-change strategy. The administration now has awarded $100 million to 97 percent of the Commonwealth's cities and towns through the MVP program, according to officials.

"This is the sixth round of MVP funding, and we are making a major push forward by funding more climate resilience implementation projects than ever before," Polito said.

Polito continued: "It has been rewarding to see projects move through the phases from planning to design to construction and implementation over the last five years, and we are starting to see the tangible difference these projects are making in our communities as we prepare for a changing climate."

Beth Card, the Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said she is pleased that the state's municipalities are committed to preparing their communities for climate change.

"It is extremely gratifying to see more dollars than ever before being put towards local projects, such as drought mitigation, stormwater and culvert upgrades, and land acquisitions, which will have numerous positive impacts on the state's residents for many years to come," Card said.