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Stamford Receives State Funds For Climate Resilience
State funds will support climate resilience plans and projects across 17 CT municipalities and councils of governments, including Stamford.
STAMFORD, CT — Gov. Ned Lamont today announced last week that the state of Connecticut is awarding $8.8 million in grants through the inaugural round of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Climate Resilience Fund (DCRF).
These state awards will support 21 innovative climate resilience plans and projects across 17 Connecticut municipalities and councils of governments, including in Stamford.
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Stamford will receive $210,750 to develop a neighborhood-level plan for the downtown, West Side, and Waterside neighborhoods for addressing heat risk and resilience, including identifying longer-term planning, policy, and regulatory strategies, and developing near-term actions to complement ongoing emergency preparedness and response efforts.
The city will also get $598,125 to evaluate flooding issues in the Toilsome Brook watershed, specifically in the Ridgeway-Bullshead, Turn of River-Newfield, and Glenbrook-Belltown neighborhoods, and develop concept-level flood mitigation recommendations that will include drainage system improvements, stream daylighting, and relocating or elevating structures and infrastructure.
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, a news release from the governor’s office said.
Connecticut had multiple heat waves in summer 2022 and record-breaking rainfall in 2021.
“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,” Lamont said in a news release. “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, including 10 municipalities that are designated by state statute as “environmental justice communities.”
“Investing in reducing climate-changing emissions and preparing for future extreme storms and events by building community resilience is critical to Connecticut’s future, particularly for our most vulnerable communities,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said in a news release. “Through this funding, DEEP is providing planning support to municipalities and nonprofits, and building the state’s resilience project pipeline to ensure our communities are well-positioned to compete for the historic federal funding available, that projects get built, and that our communities are better protected from climate-related impacts.”
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