Natural Resources seeks funding for coastal resiliency, pond dredging and downtown flood-barrier design

Jeff (last name not specified), director of Natural Resources, told the Finance Committee that the department seeks continued funding for coastal resiliency planning and several project-specific capital items.

He said the capital program asks include an annual coastal resiliency program appropriation of $1 million to further designs and move projects to construction, plus targeted requests to complete the Downtown Neighborhood Flood Barrier design (the Easy Street bulkhead area), Sacconset (transcript: 'sacrilege of pond' appears to be Sconset or a named pond) wall replacements using living shoreline techniques, and a sediment transport and dredge plan covering both harbors to start a 10-year dredging cycle.

Jeff said pond dredging efforts have taken longer to permit than expected and noted the town previously appropriated $4 million and obtained a $1 million state grant to proceed once permits were complete. He also requested funds to continue water-quality monitoring, eelgrass and base-call work and ongoing monitoring and laboratory costs amounting to about $20,000 annually for equipment warranties and subscriptions for new scientific instruments.

Committee members asked about the state Climate Action Plan and differences in island emissions and industry; Jeff said Nantucket lacks industrial emissions and that state targets may require a Nantucket-tailored plan. He said Brandt Point dock repairs and adaptive pilot projects are also in the capital list as trials for resilient coastal infrastructure.