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The State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection focused on New London and Groton in a virtual workshop on Monday evening designed to encourage local discussion on climate change.
Guests from the region discussed among themselves and with DEEP moderators about solutions to urban and regional environmental problems in connection with climate change.
The first panel, moderated by Sharmaine Gregor, who lives in New London, dealt with community climate solutions. Joseph Lanzafame, the new director of London Public Utilities, focused on rainwater management and found that his work is more on mitigating climate change than on prevention.
“I’m sure you have all noticed that we are getting stronger storms lately where we are getting heavy rains,” said Lanzafame. New London experienced 5 inches of rainfall in one hour and 20 inches in three to four hours during Hurricane Ida, Lanzafame continued. He described the efforts of the New London Stormwater Agency to encourage local mitigation efforts and pay special attention to areas more prone to flooding.
Lanzafame said communities must monitor the physical infrastructure – pipes, sumps, pumping stations, etc. – and continue to look for ways to improve the system.
Cierra Patrick, Groton City Economic Development Specialist, spoke about Groton’s efforts to build the city’s community resilience plan. She said every department in the city is considering its role in tackling climate change and dealing with man-made and natural disasters. The city as a whole is grappling with sea level rise, with a prediction that it will rise 20 inches by 2050, she said.
“The focus of Groton Utilities is on infrastructure, how things are designed, what improvements need to be made, and the police and fire departments (departments) are much more interested in responding,” said Patrick. “How do we react? How can we improve these reaction times?”
He said the effort highlights various collaborations as well as various solutions that the community can use to prepare for climate change.
Patrick said it was important for the city to tackle the resilience of the coastal community that borders the Thames and Long Island Sound, where more than 75% of the land is near water. The city is home to major employers, including Electric Boat and Pfizer, along with approximately 10,000 residents, and is home to the headquarters of Groton Utilities, a public utility company.
Lanzafame said community development guidelines can control floods and use smart rainwater management plans.
“In urbanized areas you have a lot of problems, you have nowhere to go for the water,” he said. “We like to work on a site-specific basis and demand that you do not increase the amount of rainwater generated by your site during a development.”
He said he was an advocate of “rainwater pools, underground chambers, things that hold water back so that when the storm is over you can slowly drain that water”.
Both Lanzafame and Patrick agreed that hyperlocal resilience plans are essential to improve the community’s prospects for dealing with the effects of climate change. Lanzafame said local communities are the first place local officials should go to see how local environmental issues can be improved.
Jennifer Muggeo, the assistant director of the Ledge Light Health District, said climate change is closely linked to public health. For example, she said that as storms increase, there is an increase in vector-borne diseases and exaggerated asthma is linked to air quality. She and her panelist Ronna Stuller, Chair of the New London Green Town Committee, recognized inequalities in how climate change affects people differently depending on race and class.
“Who can afford to evacuate in a storm?” asked Muggeo. “Who will get resources that are directed to homeowners by politics when 60% of a community leases their living space? Who can afford to recover after the evacuation? We see the same power dynamics repeat, and they will continue on affect the public. ” Health until we change. “
Muggeo drew similarities between environmental and health outcomes by saying that both have been judged by personal choices for too long, while social determinants and large corporations bear greater blame.
Kaitlyn Cyr from the DEEP Office for Energy, Technology and Politics, the DEEP Coordinator for Urban Forestry Danica Doroski and Nicole Lugli from DEEP Planning took part in a DEEP Resource Panel.
Doroski, Cyr and Lugli highlighted funding opportunities for climate-related projects, some of which can be found online at
https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP-urban-forestry-grants, https://energizect.com/your-town/community-partnership and https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Open-Space/ Open space.
DEEP plans to build on Monday’s workshop, organized in partnership with the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, with face-to-face discussion groups in Groton on Wednesday and New London on Thursday.
