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SALEM LIVING SHORELINE PROJECT CZM Green Infrastructure for Coastal Resilience Grant COLLINS COVE LIVING SHORELINE DESIGN SALEM, MA PUBLIC MEETING February 16, 2017 Photo Credit- Salem Sound Coastwatch and LightHawk ---PAGE BREAK--- City of Salem awarded Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Green Infrastructure for Coastal Resilience Financial & Technical Resources to advance understanding & implementation of natural approaches to mitigate coastal erosion & flooding problems 1. December 2014 – June 2016 for shoreline assessment 2. December 2016 – June 2017 design & permitting 1 site Glenn – CZM North Shore Regional Coordinator Julia Knisel – CZM Coastal Shoreline & Floodplain Manager City of Salem – MA CZM – Salem Sound Coastwatch – Chester Engineers ---PAGE BREAK--- • Alternatives or enhancements to bulkheads, seawalls, or revetments • Introduction of a naturalized edge using plants, sand/soil, and the limited use of hard structures BENEFITS: Living Shoreline Installations = Natural “Green” Infrastructure • Stabilizing the shoreline – more resistant to erosion • Protecting surrounding riparian and intertidal environment • Improving water quality via filtration of upland run-off • Creating habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- Focused on 5 Sectors • Critical building infrastructure • Drinking water • Energy • Stormwater • Transportation • Vulnerable populations NOT THE NATURAL COASTLINE Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment & Adaptation Plan ---PAGE BREAK--- Storm Surge Transportation Map City of Salem’s Climate Change Vulnerability & Adaptation Plan 2014 ---PAGE BREAK--- Filled Tide Lands – Chapter 91 Historic high water mark ---PAGE BREAK--- The PROCESS CZM Grant 1 1. Municipal Shoreline Survey 2. Identify up to 10 possible sites 3. Chose 3 sites 4. Develop 3 Conceptual Designs ---PAGE BREAK--- Created a Matrix to Determine Site Priority ---PAGE BREAK--- 28 Salem Municipal Site Profiles ---PAGE BREAK--- Conceptual Designs for 3 Living Shoreline Projects 1. Bio-engineering with biodegradable materials and plantings 2. Fringing salt marsh – 15 feet of marsh can absorb 50% of incoming wave energy NOT 1. Natural oyster or mussel reef 2. Beach, berm & dune chose 2 of the 4 general Focus Areas ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove Selected as 1 of the 3 Priority Sites Awarded 2nd Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Coastal Resilience Grant for design and permitting of Collins Cove ---PAGE BREAK--- Looking at Collins Cove Past 1790 Salem Map of Collins Cove c. 1650-1700: There are a few dozen houses along the Cove. A creek runs from the Salem Common along present-day Forrester Street to the Cove. 1800: The Common is leveled and drained. The creek begins to disappear. ---PAGE BREAK--- Shallop Cove 1700 - 1800 A Shallop from a illustration by Ray Brown in "The Story of Our Merchant Marine" by Willis J. Abbot, 1919. 1815 (June 17): The Essex Register notes that “the Shallop Cove, which lays eastward of the bridge, Pleasant and East [present-day Forrester] streets, & the Neck, is continually filling up. Great changes have taken place in the memory of the present generation, and very great from the first settlement of the town. It was at first their principal place for their Shallops; it is now without water at every fall of the tide. 1805 (September 12): The Salem Register reports that a 460-pound “tunny” (tuna) was stranded on the flats at “Shallop Cove.” ---PAGE BREAK--- 1820 Salem Map of Collins Cove 1815 (June 17): The Essex Register continues: Towards East Street, it is daily filling, from the sluices which conduct the water from the streets into it. The continuation of Webb Street into East Street… was formerly the only pass which the town had to the Neck, till it was washed into the cove, by the action of the tide upon its banks…” Filling of Collins Cove ---PAGE BREAK--- Railroad Tracks – Filling of Collins Cove 1874 – Map of the City of Salem Map - H. F. Walling - cropped 1848-49: The Essex Railroad builds a track across the bottom of the Cove, using gravel brought in from Danvers. On May 12, 1849 the Salem Observer notes that the rail is conveyed across the Cove “by an embankment and bridge.” This line connects Phillips’s Wharf (now roughly where Salem Ferry is located) to the North River. 1861: “…permanent improvements have been made in the construction of a new sea wall and road by Collins’ Cove, called Collins street.” Salem City Documents page 52. 1869-73: Sewers are built along Forrester, Essex, Pickman, Andrew, Brown, and St. Peters Streets. All empty into Collins Cove. (Salem City Documents, Street Commissioner’s Reports) ---PAGE BREAK--- Sewerage is a Public Nuisance 1944 Salem and Lynn Harbors, US Coast Survey - cropped c. 1960-1973: The rail line is removed. 1889-1890: Salem Board of Health in its annual report declares the “Webb Street Basin” (the water body between the shoreline and the rail line) a sanitary nuisance. In 1889, the Board reports that “About 8000 cubic yards of gravel have been placed here by the [Boston and Maine] railroad, and some 600 loads of gravel, loam and other suitable filling exclusive of city ashes have been dumped here.” Fill work is completed the following year. This adds the land on the present-day “odd” side of Webb Street. 1904-09: A main sewer line is constructed beneath Webb Street, part of a larger project that takes Salem sewage out to Great Haste Island. 1935-36: The Collins Cove Playground, a WPA project, is planned and completed. c. 1935-1940: City property along Almshouse Road and Fort Avenue is used for a city dump. In 1940 the city completes acquisition of privately held “flats” next to the dump. The WPA thickens the “neck” by filling in a roughly triangular area bounded by Almshouse Road and Fort Avenue. They begin a sea wall on its edge, but MA WPA programs are terminated before the wall is completed. ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove Today ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove – walking and bike path along the water ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove – walking and bike path along the water ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove – average tide ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove – After 11.8ft. King Tide on 11/16/2016 ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove – During hurricane Sandy 10/29/2012 Nothing like Scituate…… ---PAGE BREAK--- Collins Cove – Spartina alterniflora and other salt marsh plants growing there now ---PAGE BREAK--- COLLINS COVE N SITE ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- Spartina patens and other salt marsh plants growing there now EXISITNG VEGETATION ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- TIDE DATUMS BOSTON Station 8443970 Datum Description NAVD88 (feet) MHHW Mean Higher-High Water 4.77 MHW Mean High Water 4.33 MTL Mean Tide Level -0.42 MSL Mean Sea Level -0.30 DTL Mean Diurnal Tide Level -0.37 MLW Mean Low Water -5.16 MLLW Mean Lower-Low Water -5.51 NAVD88 North American Vertical Datum of 1988 0 STND Station Datum -9.03 MN Mean Range of Tide 9.49 ---PAGE BREAK--- SURVEY DATA ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- DelawareEstuary.org Shellfish-based living shorelines trapped sediment and appeared to decrease erosion at low-moderate energy sites. Ribbed mussels (and oysters) successfully recruited onto natural substrates deployed in the intertidal zone along eroding salt marshes ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- ---PAGE BREAK--- Questions and Comments Contacts: Tom Devine – [EMAIL REDACTED] / [PHONE REDACTED] City of Salem Department of Planning & Community Development Senior Planner Eric Nelson – [EMAIL REDACTED] / [PHONE REDACTED] Chester Engineers Senior Project Manager Barbara Warren – [EMAIL REDACTED] I [PHONE REDACTED] Salem Sound Coastwatch Executive Director & MassBays Lower North Regional Service Provider ---PAGE BREAK--- Other 2 Priority Sites Juniper Cove along Columbus Avenue Furlong Park along the North River