Pols Promote $$$ For Clean Water, Air Efforts
Quincy Mayor Reflects On “Disgusting” Summer Emissions
The infrastructure law passed by Congress last year was in the spotlight Monday morning in Massachusetts as federal, state and local officials met up in Quincy and Lowell to celebrate the billions of dollars of federal money that Massachusetts is poised to put to work on projects they hope will lead to a cleaner commonwealth.
Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, House Speaker Ron Mariano and others got together to ceremonially break ground on a future MBTA bus maintenance garage in Quincy, where Warren declared that Massachusetts has “our toes on the line for transformational change right now” thanks to the money the law will send to Massachusetts to fix potholes, pave streets and make “bold and visionary” investments in areas like public transportation.
About $9.5 billion in formula funding is headed the Bay State’s way over the next five or six years as part of last year’s federal infrastructure package, Baker said Monday — including $5.4 billion for roads and bridges, $2.2 billion for public transportation and $1.3 billion for environmental infrastructure. By using the money to accommodate the pivot to more environmentally friendly public transportation, the governor said, it can have an even greater impact.
“The good news for us is not just this particular facility today but the statement it makes about where we’ll be going and how we’ll be moving and moving people over the course of the next decade or so,” Baker said Monday morning, adding that the T’s transition away from diesel and other fossil fuels in favor of an entirely electric fleet “is, for all of us here in the commonwealth, a very good story and very good news.”
A little more than 40 miles north, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, the Lowell legislative delegation, Mill City municipal leaders, and new Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator for New England David Cash were highlighting the wastewater infrastructure funding Massachusetts will get from the infrastructure law.
Trahan’s office said Massachusetts will receive at least $1.1 billion in funding to improve water infrastructure over the next half-decade and additional support to address issues of particular interest to Trahan and many other Bay Staters, including the discharge of sewage into public waterways at times of heavy rainfall and harmful PFAS contamination in soil and water.
Baker was also enthusiastic Monday about the federal government providing money to deal with things like combined sewer discharges and culverts that need repair.
“I cannot express how much I appreciate the federal government’s decision to make a big investment in environmental infrastructure,” he said in Quincy. “Environmental infrastructure is infrastructure, just like other infrastructure. But it has gotten the short shrift for decades and we have a ton of catching up to do there.”
The state has long acknowledged that it has a ton of catching up to do at the MBTA as well. In 2019, T officials estimated that it would cost $10.1 billion to replace all outdated equipment and infrastructure across the MBTA system.
The infrastructure law passed by Congress last year was in the spotlight Monday morning in Massachusetts as federal, state and local officials met up in Quincy and Lowell to celebrate the billions of dollars of federal money that Massachusetts is poised to put to work on projects they hope will lead to a cleaner commonwealth.
Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, House Speaker Ron Mariano and others got together to ceremonially break ground on a future MBTA bus maintenance garage in Quincy, where Warren declared that Massachusetts has “our toes on the line for transformational change right now” thanks to the money the law will send to Massachusetts to fix potholes, pave streets and make “bold and visionary” investments in areas like public transportation.
About $9.5 billion in formula funding is headed the Bay State’s way over the next five or six years as part of last year’s federal infrastructure package, Baker said Monday — including $5.4 billion for roads and bridges, $2.2 billion for public transportation and $1.3 billion for environmental infrastructure. By using the money to accommodate the pivot to more environmentally friendly public transportation, the governor said, it can have an even greater impact.
“The good news for us is not just this particular facility today but the statement it makes about where we’ll be going and how we’ll be moving and moving people over the course of the next decade or so,” Baker said Monday morning, adding that the T’s transition away from diesel and other fossil fuels in favor of an entirely electric fleet “is, for all of us here in the commonwealth, a very good story and very good news.”
A little more than 40 miles north, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, the Lowell legislative delegation, Mill City municipal leaders, and new Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator for New England David Cash were highlighting the wastewater infrastructure funding Massachusetts will get from the infrastructure law.
Trahan’s office said Massachusetts will receive at least $1.1 billion in funding to improve water infrastructure over the next half-decade and additional support to address issues of particular interest to Trahan and many other Bay Staters, including the discharge of sewage into public waterways at times of heavy rainfall and harmful PFAS contamination in soil and water.
Baker was also enthusiastic Monday about the federal government providing money to deal with things like combined sewer discharges and culverts that need repair.
“I cannot express how much I appreciate the federal government’s decision to make a big investment in environmental infrastructure,” he said in Quincy. “Environmental infrastructure is infrastructure, just like other infrastructure. But it has gotten the short shrift for decades and we have a ton of catching up to do there.”
The state has long acknowledged that it has a ton of catching up to do at the MBTA as well. In 2019, T officials estimated that it would cost $10.1 billion to replace all outdated equipment and infrastructure across the MBTA system.
