Adaptations to Create Resilient Beach Communities

Jon Lockman of the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission will moderate a panel that includes: Bob Hamblen, Saco's City Planner; Greg Tansley, Biddeford's City Planner; and, Gary Lamb, the Director of Planning and Community Development of Old Orchard Beach.

This presentation is to help us "get real" about what towns can do to create resilient beach communities.

Jon, or JT, introduces the Coastal Hazard Resiliency Tool Project, an multi-year effort funded by the Maine Coastal Program. He's involved 6 communities so far. The program helps encourage communication between town planners in regards to sea level rise and resiliency issues. JT is getting tired of just talking about the problem and wants to start doing something about it. He cleaned out his library recently and found a whole shelf of material in this very issue...from 1979.

JT presents some examples of Municipal Adaption Action, including a Sea Level Adaptation Working Group in Saco Bay that would help: comment on federal or state beach nourishment/erosion control; and, help identify infrastructure vulnerable to storms and sea level rise such as culverts, storm drains, bridges or tide gates, etc. JT talks about the duties of the SLWAG, which could include recommending the standardizing of floodplain management standards and building code interpretations to rise higher above 100 year storm events. They could also recommend standards affecting shorelands adjacent to Saco Bay. These recommendations may either be binding or non-binding.

In talking about improving shoreland zoning, JT puts up a map of a coastal town (I believe it's Old Orchard Beach) which shows the highest high-tide levels rising over the past few years. The effect of increasing high tides is that the shoreland zoning buffer of 250 feet must be redrawn further inland. On the marsh side, the buffer is also squeezing in. The overall effect is that some properties that have never been subject to shoreland zoning restricting may now be.

JT now presents some questions to the gathered panel. Each presenter has 5 minutes.

First, do elected officials and citizens in your community believe that actions need to be taken to adapt to sea level rise?

Gary Lamb: Old Orchard Beach is a small town, when you don't count tourists. The town is very concerned about sea level rise. The citizens need to be better educated. Poor building placement is a problem, sometimes it's human activity from long ago.

What are the obstacles going forward? Quite simply, time and money. OOB has only one person who could do this, and raising money is very hard, especially in this climate.

OOB, he says, does not slope downward. There used to be a natural outlet into the sea from the saltwater marsh, but since humans have come in, there has been a trench dug that takes water out to Route 9. The trench could be re-dug for $4 million, but hasn't yet. The trench has thus prevented stormwater from escaping the marsh into the ocean, and will soon require OOB to start pumping stormwater out. This will have to happen in the next couple years, and they won't really have a choice in the matter. Gary points out several areas where stormwater pool up, creating big problems, now and in the future.

What construction projects considered in OOB? Creating wastewater and stormwater stations. He'd like to remove some railroad tracks (temporarily) in order to eventually restore flow to the ocean. OOB is a town-owned beach, which is unusual, and will help in future efforts to create access to the beach for stormwater.

What's the top priority? Safety. In the event of a big storm, you can't have people in trouble.

Bob Hamblen: In regards to how concerned Saco's officials are about sea level rise: they're not very concerned. To his knowledge, the topic just hasn't come up. Erosion is an issue, he knows, but sea level rise is a separate issue. Camp Ellis has had a long history of dealing with erosion, but sea level rise is something else. While the city may be aware of the issue, they're not doing much to tackle it.

What are the obstacles? Lack of knowledge. A greater understanding of the issue and how Saco could be affected will all help.

Are there construction projects being considered? There are certainly things that could be done, especially after the Patriot's Day Storm a couple years ago. In terms of adaptations, though, there isn't anything particular being considered.

Camp Ellis' shoreline position has been changing a lot over the past century. There are already a whole bunch of neighborhood that is underwater, as many as 38 structures.

Regulatory Actions? He talked about trying to raise the 100 year storm structure heights to a foot higher than they are now, and some people were receptive, but the City of Saco itself was not very receptive.

Greg Tansley: JT's questions were very interesting. Greg was hoping that he could just point to other speakers and copy their answers. In response to the question of whether citizens are aware of the problem, he thinks they are aware of the issue, but not sure that the citizens are associating sea level rise with their backdoors. Are these citizens looking at certain rocks and saying "wow that never used to be underwater!" Greg isn't sure if people are making that connection.

What are the obstacles in the way? It's hard for people to think sometimes when these problems are 90 years down the road. The second obstacle is that the term "potential" is being used. When "potential" is used, and sea level changes are competing with actual, real needs for schools and roads...urgent, current needs will win. Another obstacle is that many don't want new regulations to deal with a potential problem 90 years from now.

Greg now shows a slide of Biddeford Pool showing what would happen if there was a 2 foot sea level rise during the highest tide. Many areas would now be underwater, the most significant of which is the intersection with Bridge Road. Greg said he brought this up to town engineers, and some concern was raised. A problem at this intersection would essentially create an island out of Biddeford. There may not be money to do anything. But if they had money, they would want to raise the road with fill (that would affect wildlife areas and existing homes). They could built levees...but we all remember New Orleans. We could also just do nothing.

Regulatory actions, like in Bob's case, have not really been discussed.

Question: What is your position, JT?

JT: I work for the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission. We're independent, but we receive grants from the state. 90% of his work is paid for through consulting from fee-for-services.

Question: Would the townships be interested in partnering together, maybe with the state, to apply for federal grant funds?

JT: Conceptually, yes, but we haven't even gotten it together to get a regional group together to figure out what we could apply for. Applying for federal grants is far down the road.

Question: Does the opportunity for a grant inspire towns to get together?

JT: Yes, the Coastal Program and SPO encourage them to get the working group going in order to see what's out there.

Question: What level of federal grant program would it take to get towns interested?

Gary: The Scarborough Marsh fix would take 6 million dollars. There are other things that may need to happen first.

Bob: It wouldn't take a lot of money to get Saco to the table. They recognize that they're a low-lying community.