Residents are invited to attend a public meeting on Feb. 20 with First Selectman Bill Gerber and the Flood Prevention, Climate Resilience and Erosion Control Board to share information on the town’s options to mitigate flooding.
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the Fire Training Center, 205 Richard White Way, Room 102. Another meeting is set for March 1 at 1 p.m. at Fairfield Woods Library. Registration for the March meeting is available here. Organizers hope to offer a Zoom option for one or both sessions.
Becky Bunnell, chair of the flood prevention board, said the Fairfield Master Flood Prevention, Climate Resilience and Erosion Control Plan presentation will focus on what the town can expect to happen over the next 25 years.
“We really want residents to be engaged,” she said. “[Flooding] is debilitating for many families in town, and they have ideas. If you have an idea, come tell us. We really want to hear from our residents what kind of things we should look at.”
Last year in August, Fairfield County towns, including Easton, saw widespread flooding of streets and washed-out roadways after an historic rainfall.
Fairfield has authorized payment to environmental consultants Weston and Sampson, who are tasked with compiling data from prior studies, modeling what to expect, evaluating mitigation opportunities and prioritizing recommendations.
“Then we’ll take that to town boards and determine what makes sense to do,” Bunnell said, noting that funding could come from grants or taxpayer dollars. “At the end, we’ll have a prioritized list of projects and a rough idea of the cost.
“Like many coastal towns, we saw significant flooding with Hurricane Sandy [in 2012] but also during regular storms and Nor’easters. We’ve seen flooding in the Rooster River area in 2018 and a major flood in 2021. We get sunny day flooding on a regular basis and expect more. The railroad and Interstate 95 underpass flooding is debilitating for emergency and car traffic,” Bunnell said.
While some level of protection has been done to prevent downtown flooding, Bunnell said the Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation expects a sea level rise of 20 inches in the area by 2050.
“So we expect coastal flooding to continue,” she said. “But, guided by data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and CIRCA, we need to think about what kind of resilience measures make the most sense.”
Residents can share their thoughts prior to the meetings via this website.
