BOSTON – Senator John Kerry today announced he was able to secure a total of $2,850,000 in federal funding for four critical Massachusetts projects as part of the Senate FY10 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.
 
“This is a victory for crucial environmental and conservation projects throughout Massachusetts. From restoring an important part of our state’s history in New Bedford, to expanding one of our state’s preeminent wildlife refuges, to helping our cities and towns maintain their wastewater facilities, this money will help make a difference in the quality of life of those who live and work throughout Massachusetts,” said Senator Kerry. “By making these investments in our communities, we are investing in our state’s economic future and putting people back to work now. That is why my colleagues in Congress and I fight each year to secure federal funding for initiatives like these that make a local and lasting impact.”
 
 
 
 
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park                       $1,500,000
The historic Bourne Building is the main building of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and the central institution and attraction of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. The requested funds will be used to restore this historic building, to preserve the building’s structure and protect its collections because without preservation of this building, the museum collection and the historic structure are at risk. This project is authorized by legislation allowing federal funds to be spent on non-federal assets within the park boundary providing a benefit to the National Park Service through partnership projects.
 
 
Silivo Conte National Wildlife Refuge (Sunderland)              $750,000
The funding will allow the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to continue to protect critical and irreplaceable habitat along the Fort River, a key focus area for land acquisition and public resource management within the Silvio Conte NWR, which in turn is among the Service’s very highest conservation priorities in the nation.  For each of the past several years -- with leadership from Senators Kennedy and Kerry and from Representative John Olver -- Congress has provided funding for FWS to acquire the top-priority conservation properties at Fort River, and the Trust for Public Land has secured these lands in advance to make them available on a willing-seller basis. Requested funds in FY10 would acquire the 32-acre Haluszczak/Champagne property, which lies adjacent to lands being acquired in FY09 and would consolidate critical habitat for grassland birds and other species.
 
 
Cities of New Bedford and Fall River                                             $300,000
These funds will be used for critically important improvements the CSO systems in the cities of New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts.  Each of the cities are home to 90,000+ people have median incomes far below the state’s average, and face more than $100 million in needed wastewater repairs to bring them into EPA compliance.  Fall River is actually confronting a court order to remediate overflows from its CSO’s that could bankrupt the City if progress isn’t made on its CSO mitigation program.  Neither of these two cities has the financial means on its own to address the staggering costs of the CSO improvements they must make, but each has been making good faith efforts to systematically address these challenges and each has expended more than $15 million of its own funds in the past decade to make progress despite the fact that each city has a diminishing tax base and soaring unemployment.  Today, New Bedford’s unemployment rate is more than 15% and Fall River’s exceeds 14%. This funding would be used to advance the most shovel ready among the cities’ CSO abatement projects, and New Bedford and Fall River have a decade of experience in sharing this funding to ensure that the most urgent environmental remediation needs are met. 
 
 
Westerly Wastewater Treatment Facility (Marlborough)     $300,000
These funds will be used to upgrade the City’s Westerly Wastewater Treatment Facility to bring it into compliance with the pending National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) permit state water quality certification. In Marlborough, the city’s consultant has evaluated buildout of the city’s west side and determined that over the 20-year planning period, the city will require an additional 500,000 gallons of capacity per day at the Westerly plant. Inasmuch as the town of Northborough also contributes flow to Marlborough’s Westerly plant, capacity at the plant must accommodate that community’s future growth which is estimated to generate another 1,000,000 gallons. Combined, the 2 communities will require an additional 1.5 MGD of additional capacity at the Westerly plant. This funding is crucial toward Marlborough’s ability to comply with the pending NPDES certification.