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Tag: stormwater

  • House of the Seven Gables’ historic properties planned to relocate to address rising sea levels

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    SALEM — The House of the Seven Gables is earmarking money to move five of its historic structures further inland in anticipation of rising seas and groundwater levels caused by climate change.

    As such, the organization is seeking grants and donations to implement its 50-year climate adaptation plan. In 2022, the Gables received a $509,919 grant from the state to study site conditions and create the plan that was completed in May.

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    Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202

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    By Michael McHugh | Staff Writer

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  • Your Fort Worth water bill will increase in 2026. Here’s how much.

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    Flags fly outside Fort Worth City Hall.

    Flags fly outside Fort Worth City Hall.

    City of Fort Worth

    A number of city-approved fee and rate changes adopted in recent months will officially go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, and impact Fort Worth residents’ utility bills and city service charges.

    Fort Worth will increase its stormwater utility fee by 5% in 2026 to create an estimated $2.6 million to fund drainage project and equipment upgrades, as voted on by City Council in September. The change will impact homeowners as well as commercial and industrial property owners.

    Increases to most water bills will be minimal, as the average residential property owners will only see an additional 35 cents added to their bill, elevating from $6.94 to $7.29 next year for most homeowners, according to a statement from the city in September. Rates for commercial and industrial properties will be increased based on impervious surface and square footage.

    Residential solid waste rates for garbage pickup are also increasing in the new year. A 32-gallon cart will go from $12.50 to $13.75, a 64-gallon cart from $17.50 to $19.50 and a 96-gallon cart from $22.75 to $25.75, City Council voted in October.

    ⭐ Our editors also recommend:

    Other fee increases include a 75-cent increase to environmental protection fees, and slight increases to food inspection fees and development services fees.

    The city of Forth Worth estimated in October that all those monthly fee increases would result in about $56.88 more in user fees in 2026 compared to 2025. But that increase will be partially negated by a recent property tax decrease of a quarter of a cent. That lower rate reduced the average homeowner’s tax bill by about $20 per year, according to a statement from the city in October.

    Fort Worth also made changes to its water and sewage tier breakpoints in August, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. The actual water rates are mostly the same, but the tiers that trigger higher rates will now start at lower usage levels. The second tier previously went up to 18 cubic feet of water, but that will drop to 12 cubic feet in the new year. The third and fourth payment tiers will also slightly drop.

    New state laws taking effect

    Fort Worth residents will also be impacted by a few new state laws that will officially go into law on Jan. 1, 2026.

    Texas lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year to require app stores, like the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, to verify users’ ages and get parental consent before minors can download certain apps to their devices. But that bill was shot down by a federal judge on Tuesday.

    New state laws that will go into effect include one that will speed up the eviction process in squatter cases in the new year and new framework that will regulate the use of artificial intelligence, which will include consumer protections and other disclosure requirements. All of these new laws were voted on by state lawmakers in recent months.

    Samuel O’Neal

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Samuel O’Neal is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covering higher education and southwest Fort Worth. He joined the team in December 2025 after previously working as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He graduated from Temple University, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the school’s student paper, The Temple News.

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    Samuel O’Neal

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  • Lawmakers meet to discuss health of Merrimack River

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    NEWBURYPORT — Support for new projects addressing combined sewage overflows and updates on ongoing ones were discussed by dozens of local and state officials during Thursday’s meeting at the Newburyport Senior/Community Center.

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    By Matt Petry | mpetry@northofboston.com

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  • Swampscott, Lynn UV water treatment pilot at King’s Beach shows promise

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    SWAMPSCOTT — Even as local elected officials gathered to celebrate the seeming success of a new temporary treatment unit in treating stormwater drainage to make King’s Beach safe for the public, neighbors protested about the noise the unit makes.

    Local leaders gathered on the corner of Eastern Avenue and Humphrey Street in Swampscott on Friday morning for a ribbon-cutting of a the treatment unit, a joint effort between Swampscott and Lynn.


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    Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202

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    By Michael McHugh | Staff Writer

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  • Haverhill to borrow $12.4M to reduce CS0s, upgrade water lines

    Haverhill to borrow $12.4M to reduce CS0s, upgrade water lines

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    HAVERHILL — The city will borrow $12.4 million for a project aimed at reducing the amount of combined sewer overflows reaching the Merrimack River.

    The City Council this week unanimously approved borrowing $12.4 million for a project intended to reduce CSOs pouring into the Little River and into the Merrimack River while also improving the water distribution system in the Locke Street area.

    In his request for the funding, DPW Director Robert Ward told the council the amount of the loan order increased by about $2 million since the original request passed about a year ago.

    He said the project was deferred a year due to permitting issues hit by cost increases.

    He said a number of things, including the need for additional quantities of items such as 18-inch diameter pipes, the creation of additional stormwater outfalls not in the original cost estimates, the need to rehabilitate some stormwater drain pipes, additional roadway restoration costs and other items.

    The council was provided with documents explaining the project, which will play out in three phases over the next 10 years.

    In his letter to the council, Ward noted that in 2016 the city entered into a consent decree with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requiring the city to reduce CSOs.

    Ward said that before the 1960s, sewage and stormwater were commonly collected in the same pipe. These combined sewers were designed and built to overflow into nearby waterways to prevent excessive flooding during rain storms from backing up into basements, streets, parking lots and other areas.

    Ward said the Locke Street area is the city’s biggest contributor to CSO overflows into the Merrimack River.

    This Locke Street Phase 1 combined sewer overflow (CSO) separation and water system improvements project will involve separating the combined sewer system in that area into separate wastewater and stormwater systems, thereby reducing excessive stormwater entering the sewer system during rain events.

    Ward noted that Phase 1 separates about 3,500 feet of combined sewers in the Locke Street area by installing new stormwater pipes, disconnecting catch basins from them, and connecting them to the separate stormwater lines. The project also involves upsizing existing storm drains, installing new outfalls to increase capacity of the existing storm drain system, and rehabilitating existing sewers and manholes.

    In conjunction with the sewer and drain work, old, undersized water mains in the Phase 1 area will be replaced and upsized. Ward said it makes sense to upgrade water lines in that area rather than return at a future date and having to dig up the streets again.

    The average household’s sewer rate impact from this project will be less than $21 annually, Ward stated in his letter. The water rate impact will add about $8 to the annual bill for an average size household, he said.

    The loan order funds Phase 1 of three phases over the next 10 years or so. Phases 2 and 3 will be in other areas, including Primrose, Main Street and Lawrence Street, which also discharge into Little River and to the CSO outlet behind the downtown bus station.

    “We’re paying for the sins of the past,” Ward said.

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    By Mike LaBella | mlabella@eagletribune.com

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