CNBNews

 TO ADVANCE CLIMATE RESILIENCE PROJECTS 

(24/P30) TRENTON – Lt. Governor Tahesha Way and Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette joined U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA officials, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, and other dignitaries in Perth Amboy today to announce a $72 million federal grant for projects that will fund critical climate resilience projects through the Department of Environmental Protection’s bold and comprehensive Building a Climate Ready NJ initiative.

The grant for the Building a Climate Ready NJ initiative comes from $575 million made available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Resilience Regional Challenge competition for projects that increase the resilience of coastal communities to extreme weather, and other climate change impacts including sea-level rise. The DEP’s Office of Climate Resilience will implement the initiative.

The grant’s funds will enhance resilience in many of New Jersey’s most densely developed municipalities, commit resources to help overburdened communities implement projects that protect against the worsening impacts of climate change, and partner with multiple organizations to empower communities through education and workforce training on climate change concerns.  This comprehensive five-year initiative supports the Murphy Administration’s commitment to a more climate resilient New Jersey.

Building upon a strong Coastal Resilience Collaborative established after Superstorm Sandy, and partnering with a network of 15 New Jersey-based academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations, Building a Climate Ready NJ will implement multiple projects that increase community and ecological resilience, make climate resilience planning accessible to more New Jersey communities, and help them bring those plans to fruition with comprehensive technical assistance, education, outreach and engagement.

“The plans and projects identified in Building a Climate Ready NJ further advance New Jersey’s comprehensive strategy for addressing the worsening impacts of climate change,” said Chief Resilience Officer Nick Angarone. “In addition to identifying key projects, this initiative will pair climate resilience experts with local community leaders while educating the next generation of environmental stewards in order to move resilience plans into action.”

Proposals were required to include elements focusing on reducing weather and climate impacts to coastal communities and ecosystems, collaborating across regions to ensure widespread impact, involving and benefiting underserved and underrepresented populations, and having long-lasting benefits for communities.

Project Specifics

The projects will be implemented in communities in New Jersey counties that include some of the most densely developed areas in the nation, New Jersey’s largest cities and most rural landscapes, ecologically critical coastal areas and numerous overburdened communities.

Three projects are planned to address issues stemming from flooding, degraded water quality and habitat loss:

• The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program will lead the design and construction of neighborhood-scale green infrastructure projects to improve stormwater management in Newark (Essex County), Paterson (Passaic County), and Perth Amboy (Middlesex County);
• The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority – Meadowlands Research & Restoration Institute will restore the vegetated marshlands of the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area in Kearny (Hudson County) and Lyndhurst (Bergen County);
• DEP’s Division of Resilience Engineering and Construction will build a new riverfront park on the Hackensack River in Little Ferry to improve public access to the waterfront while restoring the area’s native habitat. This aligns with the Rebuild by Design Meadowlands flood protection project, which is designed to reduce flood risks resulting from frequent rain events in the Bergen County communities of Little Ferry, Moonachie, Carlstadt, Teterboro and South Hackensack.

These projects will employ green infrastructure and grey infrastructure strategies that enhance recreational opportunities, improve air quality and increase access to waterways and natural areas.

As part of the construction and restoration work for the projects in Newark, Building a Climate Ready NJ will support partnerships to provide hands-on learning opportunities for Newark-area community college students on the design and monitoring of green infrastructure projects, as well as launch a green infrastructure training and entrepreneurship initiative for professionals working in green infrastructure construction.

Climate Resilience Future

To help vulnerable communities prepare for future climate impacts, Building a Climate Ready NJ has a multipronged approach to support an enduring pipeline of resilience projects from concept to design to implementation.

Several initiatives within Building a Climate Ready NJ will enhance municipal and regional capacity to plan for climate change by:

• Expanding the Resilient NJ program to fund direct climate resilience planning assistance;
• Developing a Meadowlands Strategic Plan that will inform municipal climate resilience planning throughout the region;
• Launching an Urban Chief Resilience Officer program that will train and staff Chief Resilience Officers in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden and Trenton;
• Updating, enhancing, and developing tools and guidance that municipalities can use for resilience planning activities; and
• Updating flood modeling and maps to inform planning and decision-making.

Multiple project partners will collaborate with disadvantaged and overburdened communities to co-design natural and nature-based resilience projects identified through prior planning efforts, preparing them to apply for federal funding for implementation.

Project design initiatives through Building a Climate Ready NJ will further support DEP’s ongoing initiatives to expand urban state park offerings. As climate change worsens, the DEP recognizes that state parks will be even more important for shade and other recreational activities, in addition to restoring natural lands that protect against flooding and coastal erosion.

Building a Climate Ready NJ will fund the development of Phase 2 design plans for the Liberty State Park Revitalization Program, which will improve and enhance existing coastal habitats and provide new public recreational opportunities at the park in Jersey City. The initiative also includes development of community-supported innovative concept designs for a new state park on the Camden waterfront.

To support project design efforts beyond the life of the grant, project partners will train practitioners on successful coastal ecological restoration and community resilience efforts and expand the NJ Coastal Ecological Restoration and Adaptation Planning Tool.

Community Partnerships

Integrated throughout all components of Building a Climate Ready NJ are education, training and engagement initiatives across the region that include expanding the use of the citizen science app MyCoast NJ, climate change resilience programming at the Novins Planetarium at Ocean County College, expanding the Urban Waters Initiative to reach more communities in the Delaware Bayshore, explaining how to use climate data and tools to inform watershed management and climate resilience decision-making, and launching a K-12 Research Practice Partnership to assist educators in teaching about climate change and climate resilience.

For more about the Building a Climate Ready NJ initiative, visit dep.nj.gov/climateready

To learn about climate change impacts in New Jersey and actions underway to address them, visit dep.nj.gov/climatechange/resilience.

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