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South Coast leaders cleaned up pollution and prepared for future natural disasters in 2024, amid a wetter, wilder, and weirder local climate.
The year started with major storms that caused roadway flooding and property damage across the region. After a wet spring and summer, it ended with the South Coast under critical drought conditions. The drought has persisted for more than a month and is stressing local farmers and water supplies.
2024 in Review
Local officials are working to help their communities adapt to intensifying coastal weather patterns. They’re developing hazard mitigation plans and infrastructure projects. Conservation groups have also been bolstering regional climate resilience by restoring wetlands and grasslands.
Meanwhile, the Buzzards Bay Coalition and local oyster growers have been pushing New Bedford to address its combined sewer overflows, and reduce bacteria pollution entering local waters. Fairhaven, Dartmouth, Westport, and Wareham are working on sewer projects to reduce nitrogen loads going into Buzzards Bay.
These efforts are helping to protect South Coast communities and their natural resources into the future, local leaders say. But projects like these take time, and can be expensive.
These are the top South Coast environmental stories of 2024.
Storms kick off 2024, nudging towns to plan for floods
2024 started with a pair of major January storms, which brought heavy rain and winds to communities across the South Coast.
Officials from Westport to Wareham reported property damage and roadway flooding. The storms also prompted regional leaders to share concerns about the long-term effects of climate change. That includes rising flood insurance costs, vulnerable coastal structures and wetlands loss.
South Coast leaders are responding to the issue. They are developing hazard mitigation plans, and elevating and flood-proofing coastal structures — like pump stations. They say they need more funding, and regional coordination around coastal resilience projects, for their communities to weather climate change.
In June, 21 coastal communities across Massachusetts — including Wareham and Marion — formed a network to share information on best practices for coastal resilience projects and find grant opportunities.
Massachusetts officials are also responding to these concerns. They have been developing a statewide coastal resilience strategy, and released draft “resiliency districts” in October. Those will help facilitate regional resiliency projects and partnerships, state officials say.
Coastal restorations
South Coast conservation groups have boosted local climate resiliency by restoring the region’s natural resources.
In November, the Buzzards Bay Coalition completed work on a new Mattapoisett nature preserve, The Bogs. They restored a set of cranberry bogs to native wetlands and grasslands.
The vegetation will enhance the land’s ability to absorb water — reducing flooding during storms, and protecting the local groundwater supply during drought. It will also filter water moving into the Mattapoisett River, and into the Mattapoisett River Valley aquifer.
Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Mass Audubon, and the coalition have also been collaborating on a salt marsh restoration and migration at Allens Pond in Dartmouth.
Salt marshes protect South Coast communities during storms, provide habitat for fish and shellfish, and remove carbon from the atmosphere. Yet they are drowning amid sea level rise.
The conservation groups are digging channels on the surface of some salt marshes that help them survive. They are clearing upland obstructions like stone berms and invasive plants to help the marshes migrate. So far, these efforts are helping preserve salt marshes at Allens Pond.
Those groups will work on more Allens Pond salt marshes in 2025. The coalition received grant funding in November for more cranberry bog restorations.
New Bedford’s combined sewer overflows
New Bedford’s combined sewer overflows have presented concerns for local beachgoers and shellfish beds for years. 2024 was no exception.
In July, a strong storm overflowed the sewer and caused untreated human waste to spill into the New Bedford harbor and Clarks Cove. It led the Buzzards Bay Coalition to cancel its annual Buzzards Bay Swim due to public health concerns.
These sewer overflows also led to temporary shellfish bed closures for oyster growers in Fairhaven, Dartmouth, and Mattapoisett this year. A change in local shellfish bed classifications is making these closures more frequent, growers say.
The City of New Bedford is working to fix its combined sewer system. It has invested roughly $500 million over the last 30-plus years to stem its combined sewer overflows. Yet progress is slow, and the city has to manage the cost burden on its lower-income ratepayers.
Fully stopping New Bedford’s combined sewer overflows will cost more than $1.2 billion. The Buzzards Bay Coalition is calling for federal funding to address the issue. Local oyster growers have seen roughly six months’ worth of temporary closure days in 2024, state fisheries officials say.
South Coast towns look to expand sewer
Massachusetts regulators implemented new legally enforceable nitrogen targets on South Coast waters in 2024. They represent the most recent step in the state’s effort to cut nitrogen pollution entering Buzzards Bay and improve water quality.
These targets were implemented for the inner New Bedford Harbor and the Wareham River.
The state put similar targets in place for the Little and Slocums rivers in 2019, and the Westport River in 2017.
Officials in affected South Coast communities say they must cut nitrogen loads entering these waters, particularly from sewage and septic systems. Otherwise, they could face costly state enforcement actions.
Wareham recently received a grant to evaluate a planned increase in wastewater flows to the town’s treatment plant. Westport is looking into grants to expand Fall River’s sewer into town.
Yet local officials say they need more funding to expand wastewater systems, and meet these nitrogen loading targets.
South Coast experiences drought conditions
Massachusetts officials declared that Southeastern Massachusetts entered “critical” drought conditions on Nov. 19. The state’s decision was based on rainfall and stream flow measurements.
Water levels are down in local wells and reservoirs. Yields for fall crops suffered across some local farms.
South Coast farmers and public works officials say regional drought conditions haven’t been as bad as they have been farther north.
Yet they are concerned about potential water restrictions and economic hits if drought conditions persist through the winter.
Recent storms have brought some relief, but the South Coast remains under a critical drought designation.
2024: The year in review
The Light’s reporters dig into the top stories of 2024, noting what the developments could mean for the coming year.
- Thursday, Dec. 26: Grace Ferguson examines the housing crisis and New Bedford’s response to the critical need for affordable shelter.
- Friday, Dec. 27: Columnist Jack Spillane revisits the Club Madeirense S.S. Sacramento’s vote to allow female “festeiras” after more than a century of excluding women from planning roles.
- Monday, Dec. 30: Anastasia E. Lennon details the triumphs and setbacks in the offshore wind industry.
- Tuesday, Dec. 31: Education reporter Colin Hogan digs into the top developments in public schools and higher education.
- Wednesday, Jan. 1: Reporter Arthur Hirsch notes the changes voters brought, from new state legislators to President Donald Trump’s second term.
- Thursday, Jan. 2: Environmental reporter Adam Goldstein chronicles the effects of climate change and environmental developments in 2024.
Email environmental reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@newbedfordlight.org.
Trump will put an end to all this climate crap.
We will become the strongest nation the world has ever known .