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Date: 3/1/2023
HOLLAND – The first of two public listening sessions regarding Municipal Vulnerability and Hazard Mitigation Planning (HMP) took place during the Holland Board of Selectmen meeting on Feb. 21.
Environmental Planner Dani Marini from the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (CMRPC) shared an overview of the plan with the board and members of the public. The CMRPC are the consultants on the project.
Marini shared that Holland is going through this process for three different reasons. The first is because the town received a grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to complete the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) planning process and join over 300 Massachusetts communities already a part of this program. The second reason is because Holland was due for a hazard mitigation update. The town received funding to complete this alongside the MVP planning. Third, completing the HMP and MVP plans will make Holland eligible for grant opportunities.
Hazard mitigation is what can be done now, and in the future, to reduce risks.
“Acting before a disaster can save money and for every dollar spent on mitigation, we save about $6 in disastrous funds and recovery costs,” Marini said.
She noted that the HMP is not an emergency response plan – it is a plan for mitigating damage from these natural hazards by taking actions before they happen.
“This plan in particular will also consider how Holland might be impacted by climate change,” she added.
Marini said Holland’s MVP planning grant allows it to complete the MVP process while simultaneously updating the HMP. She explained that the MVP program is a state program that was created in 2017 as part of former Gov. Charlie Baker’s executive order to supply support for cities and towns in Massachusetts to identify climate hazards, assess vulnerabilities and develop action plans to improve resilience to climate change.
The 2016 Holland HMP – which the town is in the process of updating – identifies the natural hazards that are facing the town, assesses the vulnerabilities of the area’s critical infrastructures, residents and businesses and presents recommendations on how to mitigate the negative effects of the typical natural hazards. Marini said HMPs need to be updated and resubmitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency every five years to maintain eligibility for grants.
Many of the required steps of the MVP process also satisfy requirements for updating the HMP. As a result, the town has created an action strategy that considers both the impacts based on historical data and climate change projected threats.
Marini said the Holland team started this planning process in July 2022. During this process, a public survey was created and published along with hosting a workshop, discussing local hazards and collecting background information for the final report.
The Community Resilience Building (CRB) workshop was a “key part” of the planning process, said Marini. “We met with a number of local stakeholders to discuss where and how Holland might be impacted by climate change,” she shared.
Now that the workshop is completed along with obtaining some background data, Marini said they are in the process of finalizing the draft report and are seeking additional public input on hazard impacts and concerns about climate change vulnerabilities. She said they are hoping to submit the plan to the state in late March for review. Then, the plan will eventually be revised and resubmitted before the end of June.
She shared that the CRB workshop was a “community driven process” led by the project coordinators – Town Administrator Stacy Stout and Brian Howie – along with a core team of town officials and volunteers.
Additionally, Marini said they created a five-year action plan to address some of the natural hazard and climate change concerns discussed.
The eight-hour CRB workshop took place on Sept. 10, 2022. It was open to the public along with some stakeholders that were invited to provide more insight on the plan. Marini said 22 people attended the workshop including local officials, board/committee members and regional groups.
The goals of the workshop were to define extreme weather and climate related hazards and identify current and future vulnerabilities and strengths, to name a few.
To better understand the hazards and potential threats to Holland, Marini said they utilized data from the Northeast Adaptation Science Center and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to project how climate change might manifest in the town.
Marini shared that precipitation and temperature projections are the best locally available estimates for the Quinebaug River Basin which is the watershed Holland is located in.
“In Holland we can expect to receive more precipitation in future years than what we typically experience today. By the end of the century, it is projected that this region will receive an additional three to four inches of rain per year, on average,” she said.
Marini noted that changes to precipitation from climate change are “complex” and that precipitation may be variable.
She continued, “The winter and spring are more likely to see precipitation increases while [the] summer and fall can see slight decreases in precipitation over the long term. And precipitation in winter months will likely fall as freezing rain or a wintery mix instead of as light and fluffy snow.”
Marini said heavy rainfall events may become more frequent. “When an inch of precipitation falls as rain, large volumes of water will run off into stormwater infrastructure and into streams and rivers,” which can lead to flooding, she explained.
“Changes in precipitation patterns caused by climate change could also increase the risk of drought in Holland as precipitation may become less consistent over the course of the year,” Marini said. On average, there could be slightly more consecutive dry days throughout the year with the highest incidences in the fall.
She noted that periods of drought were experienced this past summer, which has taken a toll on water systems, farms and forests.
She went on to say that increased precipitation can cause many impacts such as disruptive flooding, increased inland flooding, soils becoming saturated, rivers rising and more.
Regarding changes in temperature, Marini said the number of days over 90 degrees is expected to increase significantly. “About 70 years from now there may be an entire month worth of days over 90 degrees. Summers in Holland will be much warmer in the future than what has been typical. This will have major implications for individuals who are vulnerable to high temperatures including the elderly, young children and those who work outside,” she shared.
The changes in temperature will also impact building energy use such as a need for air conditioning or cooling units.
Based on the data Marini shared, annual days below freezing will decrease and the annual days above freezing will increase. The graph showed this trend has already started.
Marini said the timing of weather each season can also change from what it typically is. For instance, the warm summer weather could carry well into the fall.
“With projected increases in average temperatures and more frequent instances of drought, the probability of wildfires or brush fires in Holland may increase,” said Marini. While the western part of the United States sees more wildfires than New England, because of the large amount of forested land in Central Massachusetts, wildfires are a risk and a hazard to watch in the future.
Some other impacts of climate change will include loss of habitat, loss of biodiversity, more favorable conditions for non-native species, along with plants and animals shifting their habitat ranges over time.
Marini explained that there are several impacts on human health that Holland should be prepared for. This includes heat related illnesses, increases in respiratory illnesses such as pollen related allergies and asthma, Lyme disease from ticks and more.
Crops and livestock may also see effects along with reduction in available drinking water.
Extreme weather includes hurricanes, tropical storms, winter storms, nor’easters, tornadoes and other severe weather such as high winds.
Marini said scientists are still learning a lot about severe weather and climate change.
During the core team meeting and the CRB workshop, Marini said they identified four hazards that are most likely to have a severe impact on the town of Holland. This includes extreme temperatures such as drought and invasive species impacts, flooding – both inland and coastal, winter storms including snow and ice, and severe storms including heavy winds and tornadoes.
The next steps of the workshop were to figure out how the four primary hazards intersect with the three major topic areas: infrastructure, society and environment.
For infrastructure, this includes watermains, water wells, roads and more. For the society, this includes demographic groups such as the aging or disabled population, to general government policies such as capital or evacuation planning. Lastly, the environmental part ranges from preservation of natural resources such as water supply to restoring natural habitats like wetlands.
Marini said attendees came up with solution ideas that Holland can act on in the future to help build resilience of the features listed. She noted that MVP encourages nature-based solutions if possible.
She shared that they received a lot of feedback during the workshop and core team discussions. A few of the top findings included infrastructure, specifically concerns with road damage, aging and undersized culverts, tree damage and power outage, water supply for firefighting, alternative power supply in the event of a power outage and more.
Some strengths listed for the infrastructure include the Holland Community Center as it has a backup generator, a shelter at Tantasqua Regional High School and Brimfield Elementary School, among others.
Major concerns with the societal findings include flooding of private homes around the reservoir, lack of senior housing in town and crumbling home foundations, to name a few.
The strengths were the Holland Rod and Gun Club and Friends of the Hamilton Reservoir, along with the mutual aid/ambulance service with Brimfield and Wales.
With the environmental findings, Marini said the biggest concerns were with water quality, erosion, damaging trees, tick’ and mosquito-borne illness and more. Some of the strengths highlighted were walking and hiking trails around town, conservation land, wildlife, among others.
From this, Marini said they came up with top priority actions and ranked them based on how much they want the town to pursue these actions in the next five years. Although 22 items were identified, she shared the top seven as follows:
Develop a townwide Stormwater Management Plan.
The second MVP/HMP public listening session took place on Feb. 25 at the Holland Community Center as well as virtually.