Report: sea level rise poses risk for Wareham, Onset Village
Oct 17, 2022
By 2050, sea-level rise could affect low-lying areas of Wareham. Photo by: Sawyer Smook-Pollitt
The areas in red represent project daily flooding by the year 2050. Orange represents flooding caused by a 10-year storm. Yellow represents flooding caused by a 100-year storm. Map courtesy: The Trustees of Reservations
Map showing potential flooding in Wareham by the year 2050. Map courtesy: The Trustees of Reservations
As soon as 2050, Wareham could see daily coastal flooding, impacting 250 buildings and 3.2 miles of roads in the town.
According to a report released by the Trustees of Reservations, a non-profit that works to conserve 27,000 miles of coastlines across the state, coastal communities along Buzzards Bay could see disastrous effects of sea-level rise in the next 30 years.
The report estimates that much of this flooding would occur in low-lying areas such as downtown Wareham and Onset Village.
The report went on to say that a 10-year flood event could impact 4,326 of the town’s buildings and 61 miles of roads. A 100-year flood event could impact 6,365 of the town’s buildings and 95 miles of roads.
Low-lying areas like Onset Village, Main Street in downtown Wareham, some municipal offices, wastewater pump stations and the Tremont Nail Factory could be affected by flooding, said the report. Certain low-lying areas like the Leonard C. Lopes Memorial Park could become salt marshes.
In addition, 69% of the town’s high marshes and 10% of the town’s salt marshes are projected to be completely lost to flooding and sea level rise, said the report.
According to Wareham Town Planner Ken Buckland, there are several projects in place to help mitigate the effects of sea level rise in Wareham.
“We got grant money to study town properties and come up with an assessment of town properties and how to protect them,” he said. “We are doing a downtown study to look at ways to preserve the downtown and allow for sea level rise and increased flooding.”
Buckland added that the town may buy out certain buildings in the downtown area that see significant damage from flooding. He said that the town could create parks and open space on these properties so there are no “repeated damage claims on the taxpayer’s dollar.”
Any new projects built on the town’s floodplains will be “as flood-proof as possible,” but even though the town has projects in place to mitigate the effects of sea-level rise, there is still a lot more work to be done — especially for Wareham’s low-income residents.
“We have a lot of people that are not in the financial position to move or significantly modify their properties to adjust for sea level rise or flooding,” Buckland said. “We have to figure out how to protect them and keep them safe as well.”
