FREEPORT

Rising sea levels and climate change could mean a stormier future and increasing damage for coastal towns, according to researchers at the Maine Geological Survey.

During the Planning Board’s meeting Wednesday, scientist and researcher Pete Slovinsky will tell residents some of what they need to know to prevent or mitigate flooding and other meteorological damage to come.

The meeting and presentation will be at 6 p.m. in Town Council chambers on Main Street.

“It’s part of a larger context called the Coastal Hazard Resiliency Tools project, or ‘CHRT,’” Slovinsky said.

“It’s a larger, ongoing effort in state to create more resilience (at a community planning level) in response to storms and sea levels,” he said. “We bring science and data to the local level so communities can see what some of their own issues might be, and deal with some of the vulnerabilities we might find.”

CHRT is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association through the Maine Coastal Program, and has been conducted in 11 other southern Maine communities during the past five years.

It’s federally funded but intended to be locally driven.

“All of the communities have their different problems to address, but it’s meant to be driven by local process,” Slovinsky added. “It’s not ‘Big Brother State’ coming and saying, ‘You need to do something.’ This sets the stage for a community to identify vulnerabilities and adopt potential solutions.”

The process includes assessing a range of potential scenarios, from 1 foot to 6 feet of sea-level rise, in addition to how a local coastline would react to a 100-year storm event or a Category 1 hurricane making landfall.

Freeport is the last town in the project to be analyzed and, in many ways, is among the best fortified against significant erosion and inundation problems.

Much of its infrastructure — roads and buildings — is elevated above flood-plain levels or tidal reach.

However, there are some weak spots, such as Flying Point Road and U.S. Route 1 where it crosses the Royal River near the Yarmouth border.

While Saco and Ocean Point have dunes, Freeport has bluffs — and it’s the soil makeup and stability of the bluffs that are uncertain with regard to storm effects and tidal erosion.

Additionally, Freeport’s other liabilities are low-lying wetlands that are relatively geographically boxed in, without much expansion room to absorb storm surge or catastrophic storm runoff.

Likewise, how the town’s shellfish beds will respond to rising sea levels is uncertain.

“The species and types of clams will probably change, and sedimentation rate and fishability of the flats will probably change,” Slovinsky said, “but we don’t know how.”

In Scarborough, the marsh — the largest contiguous series of tidal wetlands in the state — is at risk of inundation by sea-driven tides and storms.

Ogunquit’s sewer treatment plant is particularly at risk, so the town’s Planning Board already has begun figuring out how to protect it.

Likewise, Slovinsky said, “Wiscasset’s treatment plant also is vulnerable, but Ogunquit’s adaptation strategy could be transferable to Wiscasset.”

Saco changed its flood plain ordinance to incorporate a two-foot elevation change in its building code.

In Lincoln County, the program instituted a countywide effort to examine evacuation routes and responses in 14 communities.

¦ WHAT: Freeport Planning
Board
WHEN: Wednesday, 6 p.m.
WHERE: Freeport Town Council
chambers, 30 Main St.

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