Sheilah Dooley, Executive Director of Pernet Family Services on Millbury Street, remembers how bad local flooding could be: “We have had water up to our thighs in the basement” (Dooley Interview, 17 March 2023). In the storm of 2008, a local Green Island business owner suffered a $1 million loss from water that flooded his building. As neighborhood leader Lorraine Laurie noted “flooding will always be an issue” (Moulton, WTG, 2017).
The Green Island neighborhood has suffered from chronic flooding problems because of its construction over wetlands and Mill Brook. Furthermore, it is at the lowest point in Worcester (aside from Lake Quinsigamond), which makes its water issues even more drastic. Some Worcesterites may remember the “Great Flood of 1955” that resulted from two hurricanes passing by Southern New England within a week. At Webster Square recorded water levels were 5 feet higher than the previous 1936 flood (NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive). Green Island’s low elevation made it the place for all that water to go.
Other factors have exacerbated the problem of Green Island’s low-lying terrain. According to researchers at Clark University, 1,853.33 acres of wetlands were drained in Worcester from 1833 to 2017. That is the equivalent of 147.4 Polar Parks worth of space (Rogan and Martin)! Close to 25% of the city’s present landscape is impervious, which inhibits any water absorption, and many soils are so compacted that they cannot absorb rainwater and snowmelt. Worcester’s outdated sewer systems make flooding even worse. When sewers can’t keep up with the volume of rainfall, untreated sewage enters the Blackstone River, and residents fear that raw sewage could enter drinking water, as well. (Steven Foskett). Is this an irreversible issue caused by 19th and 20th-century developers, or can Green Island’s flooding problems be solved?
With the progression of climate change, worsening weather conditions will only increase flooding. For instance, the frequency of 2-inch rainfall events has increased since the 1950s. Nicholas Geron, who earned a doctoral degree at Clark and has studied the area extensively, suggests that the real need for this former wetland is to be allowed to have a large body of water to store its accumulated runoff and rain: “Hopefully, the neighborhood will get a large lake. But I don’t know where it’s going to go” (qtd. in Schwan, WTG, 2021).
It may be impossible to fundamentally change the topography of Worcester, which makes residents of Green Island vulnerable to its effects. For example, Green Island Neighborhood Center suffered such severe flood damage in a 2018 storm that it wasn’t clear it would ever be able to reopen. Despite the flooding issue in the neighborhood, the city has made efforts to improve damages caused by the flooding.
Although it’s easy to blame city development for the issue of flooding in Green Island, former Public Works Commissioner Paul J. Moosey said: “This isn’t a neglected neighborhood; if there were easy fixes it would have been done 75 years ago” (Moulton, WTG, 2017). Since the “Great Flood of 1955,” the city has impressively undertaken several projects to deal more effectively with its water problems. These include a $75 million flood control project in 1985, a $15 million extension of the Mill Brook Conduit in 2007 following widespread flooding in October 2005, and more recently, a 2017 $1.25 million comprehensive study examining the city’s sewer systems. Dooley notes the flooding problems that Pernet has had to deal with “have gotten much better” (Dooley Interview, 17 March 2023).
References
City of Worcester Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan: Findings and Recommendations, June 2019. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023.
Deborah Martin and John Rogan, Clark University HERO Presentation, 22 March. 2023. Accessed 7 May. 2023.
Foskett, Steven H. “Green Island Community Seeks Answers to Flooding.” NewsBankinc., Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 19 Sept. 2011, Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.
Massachusetts Environmental Public Health Tracking. MEPHT | Statewide Flood Zone Map for Massachusetts. (n.d.). https://matracking.ehs.state.ma.us/planning_and_tools/flood-zones/flood-zones-tool.html
Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.
Moulton, Cyrus. “It’s Not Called ‘The Island for Nothing’.” The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Telegram & Gazette, 15 Sept. 2017, Accessed 16 May. 2023.
NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive. “Webster Square in Worcester, Massachusetts, during the Flood of 1955 – Nara & DVIDS Public Domain Archive Public Domain Search.” NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive, 19 Aug. 1955, Accessed 7 May. 2023.
Nick Geron, Clark University, HERO Team 2021 Presentation, 20 Feb. 2023. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Quinsigamond Ave. Flood Title Picture, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Oct. 21, 2016. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Schwan, Henry. “Climate Change a ‘Grave Concern’ in Worcester, and City Has a Plan, but Is It Achievable?” NewsBankinc, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 27 Aug. 2021, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news%2F184A3FCD00AB14E0&f=basic. Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.
Schwan, Henry. “Water, Water Everywhere: Effort to Mitigate Flooding in Worcester.” NewsBankinc., Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 31 Oct. 2022, Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette Staff. “Historic Photos: The Great Flood of 1955.” Worcester Telegram : Local News, Politics & Sports in Worcester, MA, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 23 Oct. 2020, Accessed 7 May. 2023.
“Worcester: A Greener Future, Today.” Causes of Flooding and Flood Mapping Viewer – Worcester Energy, https://www.worcesterenergy.org/leading-by-example/resilient-worcester/mvp/flooding-causes-flood-viewer. Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.