WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) announced the successful inclusion of $750,000 in federal community project funding for the City of Chelsea’s and City of Everett’s Island End River Regional Coastal Flood Resiliency project. in the FY2022 House Homeland Security Appropriations bill.

Funding for the project, which Rep. Pressley has been advocating for through Congress’ Community Project Funding initiative, will be used to advance a regional flood resilience plan to protect the cities of Everett and Chelsea. This project would provide critical flood and sea level rise protection for highly populated regions that not only host life-critical food security and energy essential infrastructure but are also prone to coastal flooding and record coastal storms.

“As Congress works to advance bold investments in the nation’s infrastructure, environmental justice must be front-and-center, and that means protecting our cities and towns from the ongoing and long-term impacts of climate change. This funding will help Chelsea and Everett—two frontline communities enhance their climate resiliency and help prevent further climate change-related disaster,” said Congresswoman Pressley. “I thank City Manager Ambrosino, Mayor DeMaria, and all of our advocates for their close partnership throughout this process, and look forward to seeing this important project across the finish line.”

“The New England region relies the distribution of fresh produce from warehouse facilities located in Everett and Chelsea, which moved from the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the 1960s to our Market Street neighborhood,” said Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria. “In addition, we have electric generation facilities, fuel storage facilities, and commuter rail service in the area. All of this area has a history of flooding and will experience more in the future. This will be not only a huge economic disruption, but promises to be a huge environmental catastrophe with sea level rise, increasing and more frequent storm surge.  I commend Ayanna Pressley taking on this enormous and  underappreciated task, because the consequences of doing nothing would be nothing short of disastrous.”

“The City of Chelsea is one of the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable cities when it comes to coastal flooding, climate change and environmental disaster,” said Chelsea City Manager Tom Ambrosino. “This much-needed federal funding will help us make Chelsea more climate resilient and I am grateful to Congresswoman Pressley for her leadership in securing these federal dollars for our community and moving this project along.”

This project, which Rep. Pressley visited Chelsea to advocate for last month, is one of ten Community Project Funding requests submitted by Rep. Pressley to the Appropriations Committee. Earlier this week, Rep. Pressley announced the advancement of federal funding for community projects in Randolph and Milton, Cambridge, and Boston. Information on the status of additional requests will be announced in the coming days.

The inclusion of this funding in the FY22 House Homeland Security Appropriations bill is the first step in the funding process, and Rep. Pressley will continue fighting for this funding as the bill moves on the House Floor.

To read more about Rep. Pressley’s Community Project Funding requests, click here. To watch her testify before the Appropriations Committee in support of her requests, click here.

Rep. Pressley was also successful in securing over $18.5 million in federal funding in the House Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill, the INVEST in America Act, which will support several projects championed by the Congresswoman through the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee. The INVEST in America Act passed the House earlier this month, and included several other priorities championed by Rep. Pressley.

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