Route 9 near Dock Square in Kennebunkport was closed due to flooding during high tide on Jan. 10. (Staff photo by Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer) Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
AUGUSTA – The Maine Legislature is considering a large injection of cash to repair and boost the resilience of public infrastructure and working waterfronts that have been impacted by extreme weather.
Governor Janet Mills proposed adding $50 million to the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund in her State of the State Address last month. The emergency legislation, LD 2225, is now working its way through the supplemental budget process.
Created in 2021, the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund was formed to help municipalities prepare for climate change.
Kennebunkport was one of the first recipients of money from the fund ($2.6 million), which it is using to raise up the causeway between Cape Porpoise and Brickford Island.
The Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee held a work session on March 14 to discuss the bill, during which lawmakers voted unanimously to table it.
That means it must undergo another work session; no date has been set yet for the next work session.
The proposed $50 million of one-time funding would be split, with $25 million for priority public infrastructure projects and $25 million for working waterfronts, according to Hannah Pingree, director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
More specifically, “eligible projects may include working waterfront infrastructure, culverts, storm water systems, water system upgrades, and other interventions that support reducing or eliminating climate impacts, especially coastal and inland flooding,” according to the Governor’s office.
The legislation could help boost York County’s recovery efforts. The county suffered $20 million in public damage during the storms on Jan. 10 and Jan. 13, according to York County Emergency Management Agency Director Arthur Cleaves, who said he’s enthusiastic about the bill.
York County was again hit by a storm and a high tide on Sunday, March 10 – which caused flooding in Old Orchard Beach, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.
The bill was introduced as a supplement to potential federal disaster relief the state may receive.
Governor Mills has requested that President Biden issue a major disaster declaration for the two storms in January, which would unlock federal funding to rebuild public infrastructure Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to help businesses recover.
The state expects a decision on the request for a major disaster declaration “any day now,” Cleaves said.
But these measures would not cover the full extent of the damage.
“There are limitations on what FEMA and insurance companies’ policies will cover, what the SBA will provide loan programs for, and what components are not eligible for any federal resources,,” Pingree wrote in her testimony in favor of the bill. ‘This makes the existence of other funding supports, such as through the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund (MIAF), essential to help restore a broad range of critical community infrastructure.”
To hasten recovery efforts, state officials want to get the proposed $50 million to communities as soon as possible, if it is approved.
During the workshop, Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note said that his office is working on setting up an application that is as quick and as streamlined (Maine DOT administers the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund).
During the session, the committee discussed putting more “guardrails” on the funding.
“I like the idea, if we’re going to do this, of providing the affected communities with more specificity so they can have a better sense about whether they qualify for the funding, before they spend a lot of time and energy doing that,” said Senator Rick Bennett (R-Oxford).
“When we think of working waterfront, we’re thinking about just that – commercial fishing, the landing of product, the access to the water, to their vessels. The same fits in on the aquaculture side as well,” said Maine’s Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, who added that his office could suggest language clarifying that.
The $50 million is aimed not just at rebuilding, but also at making structures stronger in the face of future storms. “The working waterfront side will include a component that requires additional resilience,” Pingree said during the work session.
Groups including the Maine Marine Trades Association, the Maine’s Lobsterman Association and the Maine Municipal Association have all submitted testimony in favor of the bill.
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