Heat and Rain Increasing in Massachusetts: Implications for Infill and the Proposed Landfill Expansion

The Gazette’s July 24 edition of Hampshire Life contains a valuable article, “When it rains it pours”, with implications for infill as well as the proposed expansion of the landfill. First, some excerpts:

When it rains it pours: Why Massachusetts is becoming waterlogged

…Massachusetts is accumulating rainy months at a disturbing pace.

Over the past century, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, average annual rainfall in the commonwealth has increased from about 36 inches to nearly 50 – a jump of over 33 percent…

…in the last 10 years, an average of over 50 inches of rain has fallen annually in the Valley.

That rainy trend is likely to continue. In a sweeping report on global warming that it issued in June, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, a coalition of scientists and researchers from a dozen federal scientific agencies including NOAA, projects that the Northeast will grow progressively wetter – and warmer – this century. Much of the increasing precipitation could fall in heavy rainstorms that raise the risk of flooding and damage to agriculture, the report says.

In fact, those kinds of downpours have been occuring with growing frequency across the country, according to the report, but predominantly in the Northeast, where they’ve increased 67 percent in the past 50 years…

[Derek Arndt of the National Climatic Data Center] notes that future climate projections show the South experiencing increasing periods of significant drought, like the one that gripped parts of that region last summer and fall.

And increasing rainfall in the Northeast is not occuring in a vacuum, experts say: It’s accompanied by higher temperatures…

By the end of the century, depending on how fast heat-trapping emissions increase, annual average temperatures could increase from 4 to 8 degrees, according to the report…

…severe flooding caused by heavy rainfall and rising seas could cause extensive damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure like roads and drinking water systems…

Higher temperatures in urban areas in summer – Hartford, Conn., might average 30 days annually of 100-degree heat later this century, the report says – could worsen air pollution problems as well as make life generally miserable…

This article underscores points we have been raising for some time:


  • Development that encroaches close to wetlands, as does the proposed Kohl North Street condo project, is unwise. We need to give our urban wetlands more space, not less, to help them counteract the prospect of increased stormwater flows as well as droughts. Northampton’s recently enacted Wetlands Ordinance, which encourages “Smart Growth” development as close as 10 feet to wetlands in Northampton’s more urban districts, flies in the face of predicted climate trends.


  • Reducing urban greenspace through poorly-conceived infill is likely to worsen the urban heat island effect. Predictable consequences are increased heat and air pollution in urban areas, on top of effects from climate change. This will not encourage people to live in built-up areas, a goal of Smart Growth and the Sustainable Northampton Plan. Infill should be largely directed to land that is already covered with pavement or existing structures. We have not nearly used up our supply of such land. King Street alone offers several good candidates for infill.


  • As droughts and water shortages are likely for the South and West, the water in the Northeast is likely to become an increasingly valued resource. Extending the Northampton landfill over the Barnes Aquifer recharge area puts a potentially valuable regional asset at risk.

See also:

Gazette: “Region’s storms going to extremes, report finds” (12/5/07)
Extreme downpours and snowstorms are rising in frequency nationally, with the highest increases in New England…

Massachusetts saw a 67 percent rise in severe storms during [1948-2006], trailing only Rhode Island and New Hampshire…

…the top 10 severe storms in the state all occurred in the past decade…

…scientists expect that extreme downpours will punctuate longer periods of relative dryness, increasing the risk of drought…

July 30: Northampton City Council Special Meeting on Landfill Ballot Question

Videos: City Council Meeting of 7/9/09 – Landfill Ballot Questions, Local Meals and Hotel Taxes, Conservation

Wall Street Journal: “In the U.S., water managers in 36 states anticipate shortages by 2013” (2/17/09)

“Bringing Agriculture Back to Water – A Sustainable Solution for the 21st Century” (PDF)
Because of water supply concerns, many observers and agricultural scientists (Postel 1992, Reisner, 1986) point out that desert irrigated agriculture is unsustainable. Salt build up due to evaporation in an arid climate eventually makes soils useless. Only enhanced flushing of the soils requiring ever-increasing amounts of water can stave off the inevitable poisoning (Postel 1992, Arax and Wartzman 2003)…

Based on the past, present and gloomy outlook to the future, we believe that the more natural and sustainable agricultural system for the U.S. is irrigated assisted rain-fed agriculture in the east and not desert irrigated agriculture in the west. Because of natural rainfall in the south only 6-9″ of irrigated water are needed for crops rather than the four feet needed in Arizona and California…

Paradise City Forum: Landfill and Aquifer

Department of Public Works: Proposed Phase 5 Expansion Information

Water Not Waste Launches to Save Barnes Aquifer

Gazette: “‘Brownfields’ law altering landscape”

Syd Gernstein: “Brownfields Revitalization Cuts Urban Blight, Suburban Sprawl”

Smart Growth vs. “Smart Growth”

Hyla Report: Northampton Wetlands Buffers at Narrow End of Massachusetts Spectrum

Just Released: Planner’s Guide to Wetland Buffers for Local Governments