BY JOHN VITAGLIANO
SPECIAL TO EASTBOSTON.COM
Recent coastal storms’ impacts on Massachusetts’ seacoast communities provide a stark warning to Boston which is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surges which are inevitable.
Sea level rise is due largely from accelerated melting of the Greenland and Antarctic glaciers and ice sheets from global warming, and to a lesser but significant degree from ocean waters’ expanding volumes from warming temperatures.
The consequences of sea level rise are ominous for Boston. Current scientific data indicate that by the year 2050 New England coastal communities will experience an average sea level rise of three to six feet. This would be a catastrophe for East Boston, a peninsula bordered by Boston Harbor and the Chelsea River, with a possible flooded area of over 300 acres. Charlestown, the North End, and Seaport District would also be severely impacted as would Winthrop and Chelsea. Logan Airport, due to its massive filling of Boston Harbor, has removed 2,300 acres of inner harbor that once served as a buffer against tidal surges for East Boston and Winthrop.
There is a brilliant proposal that would protect all of Boston Harbor, its adjoining communities, the seaport facilities and Logan Airport, an award-winning plan by local city planner Antonio DiMambro praised by noted oceanographer and author John Englander. The plan would protect the entire harbor and city neighborhoods from sea level rise. DiMambro describes his brainchild as “Boston’s Sea Belt”, a series of connected barriers linking Deer Island, Long Island, and Squantum into a bulwark with across the harbor, with fifteen-foot gates that would rotate closed to protect the harbor and city from storm surges. The enclosed harbor would protect Boston from sea level rise and storm surges. Winthrop Harbor from Point Shirley to Court Road would also be protected as well as the Bayswater neighborhood of East Boston.
Such an undertaking would not be inexpensive in the short term but would be essential in the long term as protection for the incalculably valuable seaport assets and irreplaceable neighborhoods of Boston. I believe that Massport, created by the Legislature in 1956 to be the steward and protector of Boston Harbor infrastructure, including Logan Airport which would be severely affected by sea level rise, including closure in some instances, must play a lead role in in developing and underwriting an effective sea level rise protective system for Boston Harbor. In 2012 Boston narrowly escaped the massive destruction from Superstorm Sandy which devastated New York and New Jersey, by a mere six hours because the storm struck at low tide instead of high tide. The safety of East Boston, all of Boston’s neighborhoods, Winthrop and the region’s air transport and maritime infrastructure should not be dependent on a chance tidal occurrence.
A moveable sea barrier for Boston Harbor would not be precedent setting. The Netherlands have been leading the way in creating and operating real world moveable sea barrier systems for decades. For example, the Macslantering Barrier system has been operating successfully on the Nieuwe Waterweg, protecting the cities of Rotterdam and Antwerp from the ravages of sea level rise and storm surges.
Boston is not the only American coastal city facing inevitable se level rise. New York and New Jersey, on the tenth anniversary of Super Storm Sandy, have approved a $52 billion dollar project by the US Army Corps of Engineers that will fund the design and construction of a huge sea barrier gate system for New York Harbor to protect against a repeat of Super Storm Sandy. A Boston Harbor Barrier system would not approach that cost level.
The City of Boston has failed to provide the leadership and resources to match the initiatives of New York and other cities to develop an adequate sea level rise protective system. Mayor Wu has paid little attention to this critical matter. Her so-called plan involves a few isolated spot locations around the Harbor for remedial action which amount to 10% of the City’s land mass which might be protected from sea level rise-an isolated structure here or there that could be elevated while the other 90% remains submerged. The neighborhoods will pay the price.
John Vitagliano served as a member of the Massport Board and as Commissioner of the City of Boston’s Transportation Department.
