Everett officials took a field trip to Chelsea last week to make a point that is hard to argue with: if the New England Produce Center floods badly enough, a lot more than Chelsea gets a headache.
According to the city, Mayor Robert Van Campen joined Chief Development Officer Monica Lamboy, Councilor Holly Garcia, and Councilor Stephanie Martins on a tour of the produce center with state lawmakers and other regional officials. The stated focus was “increasingly severe flooding” at a site that moves fresh food to grocery stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals, and other institutions across Greater Boston, New England, and even the Canadian Maritimes.
That is not some boutique policy concern. The city says the produce center is “the largest wholesale produce market in the region” and part of the food supply for more than 9 million people. If that operation gets knocked offline by floodwater, working people feel it the usual way: shortages, delays, and higher prices.
The site sits in the floodplain of the Island End River, a tidal tributary of the Mystic River. In plain English, that means it is already in a bad spot, and the bad spot gets worse as sea levels rise. The city says the river “frequently overtops its banks” and that flooding “is growing more severe each year.”
The proposed answer is the Island End River Flood Resilience Project, which Chelsea and Everett have been developing for more than a decade. The plan includes a linear flood barrier, underground tidal gates, and public access features including an elevated riverwalk, a new Island End Park, and restored wetlands.
The city is obviously pitching this as a regional infrastructure project, not just a local beautification job with some climate language attached. Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez said, “This visit made clear that protecting the New England Produce Center is not just a local priority, but a regional imperative.” He also called it “the kind of forward-looking investment we need to meet the challenges of climate change.”
Van Campen put it more plainly. “The flooding we see along the Island End River is not just a future threat,” he said. “It is happening now, and it is getting worse.” He added that “residents, businesses, and critical regional infrastructure like the New England Produce Center are all at risk.”
Fair enough. This is the kind of climate and infrastructure issue that deserves actual attention because there is an actual thing at stake: food distribution. Not a hypothetical zoning panic. Not a social media campaign. A real supply chain asset sitting in a floodplain.
The legislators on the tour included Senator Sal DiDomenico and members of the Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management and the Joint Committee on Federal Funding and Accountability, including Representatives Kathy LaNatra, Kate Donaghue, Steve Ultrino, Estela Reyes, and Jeffrey Turco.
Now comes the part that matters more than the photo op. After “more than a decade” of development, the question is whether the state and federal governments will fund and move the project, or whether this joins the large pile of urgent infrastructure everyone agrees is important right up until it is time to write the check.