12.9.2022 - EPA Press Event - Major Investments in the Health of Fall River

thank you

very much good morning everyone good morning I'm Matt Damaris and I have the privilege of being the principal here at BMC Durfee High School and thank you I also have the privilege to welcome you all to this event um you're going to hear some amazing news for the city of Fall River in a few minutes I just want to take an opportunity to point out that the seventh administrator of the EPA was

a Durfee graduate William K Riley class of 1958 yes and many of you know Dr Ernest Mona's former Secretary of Energy under Barack Obama who was Durfee classes 62. and I'm saying that I'm saying that to brag a little bit but I'm also saying that to the students because your pathway in life will take you to wherever you want it to be but there are examples of hilltoppers that went before

us um that have carved the path to to great leadership opportunities so I expect great things out of you so tune in today and and see what's about to happen for the city of Fall River it is my pleasure to introduce the United States EPA regional administrator David cash so much oh my goodness my goodness I love to be in a high school particularly a beautiful high school like this this is

just a remarkable building that it you can tell there's Just Energy and excitement here even beyond what we're doing today and it's so great that so many students are here let's give it up for the students awesome thank you uh principal this Maris it's great to host us here for this great event I know mayor Coogan is here as well thank you so much uh for hosting us in this wonderful City and the

administrator for Community utilities Paul ferland is also here we'll be hearing from him as well so exciting to have members of our delegation here who have been so supportive of the kind of efforts that we're doing today thank you so much Senator Warren for being here so appreciate it and Congressman Arkansas thank you so much for being here as well he is also my congressman so it's

wonderful to to uh to have you here representing the city as well what a phenomenal day this is to celebrate what we're doing and I always love to honor the folks who work at the Environmental Protection Agency I've been here for only like nine or ten months but the staff is just remarkable and I just want to give shout outs to Jane Downing Mark Spinelli John Rogan Jason turgeon Katie

Maurice moracy Alex Azevedo Gary Rennie Alex I believe grew up here right is that right that's right Gary Renny Laura Berman B Pickett Doug gutro Joanne Kittrell Michaela rump and tsukena al-araji just unbelievable so I know we're celebrating but we're also celebrating because we are challenged right why are we here part of the reason we're here and I don't know if you know this but Fall

River has one of the highest rates of asthma in the state if you're looking at just the k through eight set of students 50 percent higher than the average of the state right if you're looking at asthma related visits to the emergency room here three times higher in Fall River than the rest of the state that's a huge problem that we're facing and it's a problem where there's a legacy of environmental injustices where

emissions and pollution is concentrated in some communities and not others and part of what the Biden Harris Administration is doing and part of what Congress has been leading in is writing that wrong and that's part of what the Investments that are going on today you see the beautiful school buses outside just a phenomenal piece of technology that will keep air emissions down and I

don't know how many adults are in this room I don't know how many of the kids take buses but I took a school bus when I was a kid and I remember that smell when the school bus came down the road it was this kind of sweet acrid smell and I didn't know at the time that when I was breathing that in it could cause problems for me in the future that I

might have a higher chance of respiratory disease heart attacks things like that that's what people in these communities face and that's what these buses out there represent a change of that cleaner air a parent stand standing on the corner with their kids and not worrying what their kids are breathing in and that is a huge advance what I'm so I'm so excited about today too is we're not just talking about

school buses but we're talking about lead pipes so we're talking about the air we breathe and the water we drink it doesn't get any more basic than that and like so many parts of New England Fall River has aging infrastructure and the pipes were laid a hundred years ago and they're LED and it's time to get the lead out and what we're talking about today what we're announcing today is Big

Federal Investments that have come from Congress through EPA where a total of almost 15 million dollars is to going is going to replace diesel school buses for the school Fleet here and take out over 1600 lead pipe services to homes a huge huge Advance because there should never be a time where you as a parent or you as a kid turn on your tap and you worry what's in that what's in that

removed and a variety of other technical assistance it's just a huge amount of funding comprehensively going to make our community safer and healthier and it's such a delight to be here to hear from the leaders who are driving this and to hear from some students as well we're very excited about that so let's start with our speaking program and invite up Senator Warren who has been such a champion such a champion of

infrastructure it's amazing to hear her talk excitedly about pipes and engines infrastructure Senator Warren thank you very much thank you it is so good to be here with you administrator cash and with all of you you know I appreciate the introduction uh thank you principal Damaris for having us at your school today this is a wonderful opportunity I also want to say I'm here representing myself but also my good

partner Ed Markey who couldn't make it this morning but believe me he has been here every inch of the way toward making it to this day and he will be with us every day in the future so go in you know I just want to say on the way in I do get excited about infrastructure I do get excited about school buses and I fell into step next to a young woman

and I said is that exciting that school bus and she looked back I mean she's really cheerful but she said it is just a school bus and I said yeah but every time you look at that school bus think of all the pollution that will not happen from a school bus and she said yeah I could get behind that so it is good to be excited about this it is so good to be back in

Fall River and it is good to be here with people who want to work in Partnership to make real change um I want to start just by saying woohoo um because this is a moment of celebration for as long as I have been in the Senate I have been pushing for Investments for clean air and clean water as administrator cash says it doesn't get more basic than that I feel

like part of my job in the Senate is to represent people who want to breathe and who want to drink water and that has to be a core part of what we get done and finally we are able to deliver after years and years and years of blockage and under investment and not getting the pieces right we finally got the bipartisan infrastructure law and that means that five school districts across

Massachusetts are going to receive nearly 30 million dollars to replace existing school buses that are spewing Diesel and to move them over to Electric that's and I round Fall River by the way is getting 4 million of that so let's that's fabulous it's going to mean 11 new electric school buses just like the one we got a chance to look at outside and you know what this is going to do this is going

to protect our children and our communities from diesel emissions it's going to reduce maintenance costs and that's going to help on the school budget so instead of spending a lot of money to repair engines we're going to spend that money on teachers we're going to spend that money on education we're going to spend that money on our students and of course it's going to reduce greenhouse gases and get us

closer to the president's climate goal of reducing climate emissions in the United States by 40 percent by 2030.

pretty amazing this is about the air but it is also about the water uh it's about a 10 million dollar grant that Fall River is going to receive in order to replace pipes uh lead pipes that damage the health and the safety uh for all of our families now I want here especially because we have our federal delegation our state delegation with us as well this has been very much a partnership

and a partnership of different levels of government coming together federal state and local for far too long Fall River has been left out of any work that has gone forward uh and Fall River has had to Bear the burden of both air pollution and water pollution this is Once in a generation funding that moves us closer on public health and providing some environmental justice and Equity to everyone who lives in this

city Fall River is here to be represented but I have to say it one more time it could not have happened without the federal bipartisan infrastructure bill and the American Rescue plan and here's the good news we've got this this tells us where we're starting we're not through these bills also have more opportunities in them we're going to replace these school buses we're going to replace these pipes but we're going

to keep right on going because that's what we need to do to deliver for the students here in Fall River to deliver for the people of Fall River and to deliver for the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for me this is exactly how government should function we are not here to try to help the rich and Powerful get richer and more powerful instead we are here for our children we are here for our

communities we are here to try to build more opportunity for all of us so I am grateful for the partnership with the EPA I am grateful for the partnership with the state I am grateful for the partnership with the students who are the ones who are here in school who are learning about how to repair those buses who are learning about how to prepare for the 21st century um

it's good to be here to be able to talk about an investment in you because you truly are the reason we're all here today so thank you all it's just a great honor to be with you so much gratitude so much gratitude I'd like to Now bring up another member of our federal delegation who has been a leader as well in making sure that we can make the kind of investments in the

future that we've all been talking about please join me in welcoming Congressman Jake alkenclaws

thank you David uh for your leadership and your short time at the EPA you're already making a big difference mayor Coogan it's always good to be with you Senator Warren it's a pleasure as well and similar to how Senator Warren is bringing uh regards from Senator Markey allowed me to bring regards from representative Keating my partner here in Fall River who I know wishes he could

be here as well and has certainly stand shoulder to shoulder with me as we work on behalf of the city I also want to recognize Senator rodericks and representative phiola to just ferocious Fighters for Fall River and real Partners to me as I work to deliver for the city but really I want to address the students today in particular because today is a good day to talk about why government matters

I've spent the last three years getting to know the residents of Fall River learning your challenges and listening to your aspirations and I know that for many of you Washington seems distant and broken a reality TV show but what happens in Washington matters having a government that works matters these last two years government has worked we passed generational investments in infrastructure science

and domestic manufacturing we passed legislation to keep weapons out of the hands of Americans who should not have them and to put weapons into the hands of ukrainians fighting on the front lines of the Free World and we passed the biggest boldest climate action and clean energy investment in history Democrats were in charge but we worked to get Republican votes too and I'll note for the next term in the house when

Republicans are now in charge that I hope that they'll operate in a similar bipartisan and good faith manner because it's important that government works for America and for Fall River it's important for fall River's children who will drink from d-leaded pipes and go to school on clean running buses and it's important for all Americans who want to build an economy and a democracy that truly works for everyone onwards

and happy holidays thank you so much congressman next I'd like to call up a friend and colleague but someone who represents the Partnerships that Senator Warren talked about that to get the kind of work done that we're doing now it has to be federal state Municipal Marty suberg is the current commissioner of the State's Department of Environmental Protection he is ending his 40-year Service as a

public servant to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts he worked with me when I was at dep uh and uh this is his uh probably his last month last uh last month of service distinguished service protecting your air your water in really fundamental ways sacrificing his time and his energy to make sure he could bring to the Commonwealth the uh the the the uh decreases in pollution clean water and clean air as is demonstrated

today commissioner subers thank you thank you very much thank you senator thank you David for that great introduction and it's wonderful to be here with you Senator Congressman uh were grateful to be here with the mayor um and I do want to acknowledge representative Fiola and senator rodericks who are has has been noted um tenacious advocates for Environmental Protection protecting Public Health in their communities

and I'm also delighted to be here with with all of the students it's wonderful to feel the energy to see the possibilities that we're all looking at going forward on behalf of the baker Polito Administration I'm glad to be here to celebrate this Federal funding that will protect Public Health and help in the battle against climate change the investments in Fall River are significant and a measure of the

Investments we're seeing all across the state Mass dep has been working with Fall River to address an issue that affects older communities across the state and really across the country lead public drinking water systems are required to regularly test for lead levels in their water and if issues are identified to develop plans for them just last month dep in the city reach an agreement to

remove and replace approximately 3 700 known partial and full-led service lines in its Distribution Systems including all lines on city property as well as lead line connections on private property at no cost to the property owner this is an important outcome and I'd like to recognize the work done by dep's Regional director Millie Garcia Serrano and and her tenacious Council Sean Walsh

and and for the strong leadership of Mayor Coogan and and Paul Ferlin to achieve this agreement and I want to thank EPA region one particularly Jane Downing who has taken such an active role on lead issues and really all drinking water issues across the Commonwealth so Jane thank you very much and when we were negotiating this um what wonderful news it was that this 10 million dollar Federal investment was

coming to help fund these efforts and to make sure that we could achieve the results we're all looking for this Builds on a 750 000 loan from the state revolving fund to support lead inventory and revised replacement planning and will help track and map lead service lines fully so that we know exactly where we need to go and the great news is that this loan will be fully forgiven once the project is completed

and it comes at a time when Flow River is making other significant Investments again taking advantage of the srf program to build on our infrastructure a new booster pumper stay pumping station excuse me at the Wilson Road Pump Station a study to address combined sewer overflows an issue of increasing attention for water quality and a geo-based mapping effort to for the water system at about a hundred and

fifty thousand dollars to make sure that we have better information and and again I you know you can't help but be taken by the bus the electric buses this is the first time I'm seeing an electric bus and um what an exciting investment this 3.8 million dollars is these types of rebates are essential as we seek to decarbonize our transportation sector while improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

and we at Massachusetts are going to try to leverage that funding we've used Millions from the Volkswagen uh settlement fund that we got from the federal government to pay for electric school and transit buses across the Commonwealth to pay for charging infrastructure we have other resources that we're going to use to make sure that these types of Investments match other types of investment to promote um to promote

Clean safe Regional Transit and school Transit options and so I would just like to say that um you know I want to Echo something that the senator said this funding is really a generational opportunity the funding that we will get this year and in the years ahead will help not only Fall River but communities across the state on behalf of mass dep we are committed to working with EPA with cities and

towns with our legislators with everybody who is working in the fight to protect Public Health in the environment and we look forward to our ongoing work together thank you thank you commissioner suberg and can I just ask for one more round of applause for Smarty And The Amazing

none of this can happen without partnership at the local level that's where the rubber hits the road that's where the lead pipes are that's where the people who are turning on their Taps and breathing in the air is so I want to welcome mayor Paul Coogan well they told me to be brief and I'm going to be extremely brief um I have to I Echo back to what Senator Warren was saying about being left

behind the days of Fall River being left behind whether it's our school buildings whether it's our buses whether it's our lead pipe service those are gone those days are over with the help of our federal delegation Senator Warren Senator Markey Jake and our state delegation led by Senator rodericks and representative phiola Sylvia and Schmidt Fall River is not going to be second tier anymore we are

moving up and we are moving on and we ask all of you to help us every day going forward this is a very very important day for us when you are able to bring 14 million dollars in for jobs for the climate for development in our city that's what we're looking for and I will be calling these people again I'm sorry Senator Warren and I'm sorry representative Viola and Senator rodericks but I will bug you

every day I can to help the residents of this city and the students in this school with your help we're going to keep this city moving forward thank you very very much for all being here today we appreciate every one of you thank you guys very much you are lucky to have a mayor who's that feisty that's awesome also uh would like to to call up when we talk about local and really

understanding how the Water Works uh and the utilities work is Paul Ferlin the administrator of community utilities

thank you very much everybody usually when I'm in a school speaking to a group it's a group of students and I start off by asking them how many people use the product that my department makes today most people don't understand I said raise your hand if if you use the product that we make and then I asked them how many people brush their teeth how many people wash their hands and

then everybody's hand goes up I think that's part of the problem most people don't understand what it takes to get clean water to their houses and what it takes to treat the water once it's used so trying to get people to understand that is is something that that takes a lot you know it takes a lot of people to get the water to their house and it also takes a lot of money

uh the funding that's provided here today will help provide Clean safe drinking water to all of our residents out of the 21 000 services that we have water services that we have in the city we have over 3 000 that are documented to still be led either full or partial what we want to do is be able to get all of those LED Services out of this system

this 10 million dollar win Grant will be will be added to a state revolving fund that we've been a part of for a long time within that state revolving fund is also going to be supplements and principal reductions from the bipartisan infrastructure law and then also on top of that some of the other funding arpa funding that's been provided to the city provided to the council will also be

used while this project is ongoing over the next four years we plan on removing most of the lead Services throughout the whole entire city with this funding thank you this will be over 18 million dollars between arpa srf bipartisan infrastructure law and this wind grant that will be available to use for lead service removal a very small portion of that will will be burdened by the rate payers

the city has been replacing lead Services uh within this system for years the residents will be working the city will be working with all the residents to replace the lead service all the way from the main all the way to the media in their house at no cost to those residents first I'd like to thank the federal delegation without you the win program bipartisan infrastructure law Opera

funding wouldn't be available to us our state delegation who supports us with the srf programs and many other programs uh without that we wouldn't be able to do it Maya Coogan who has been a huge supporter of the water and sewer department and allows us to be able to continue to do our work the administration and the city council as well also have been supportive in the past and we hope for the future support

to be able to move our projects forward some of the people that do help with us being able to get a grant like this the 10 million dollars Jane dibiaseo who is a grant writer Olga Correa who's out of uh out of my office project manager we also had Woodward and current assist us with a lot of alleged Service uh inventories that we're currently working on in other projects as well

so many people have said that they want Fall River to be a model for other communities to follow working with DP EPA and others we will be able to get the lead out and use us as a model so with that thank you very much after this I just want to let you know down on 89 wedemoe Street we are currently removing a ledge service with APA funding anybody is wants to go visit

that site they're more than welcome to thank you

thank you Mr Ferlin for that and I will definitely be going to see uh the pipe removal over there I'm very excited about that actually um so now here here's a uh guest that we're inviting up and uh no offense to the uh older folks here but I love having students come I used to be a science teacher out in Amherst Massachusetts a couple of decades ago and the inspiration of folks your age is

just palpable and you can feel that here I know some of you are involved with the green team here that's trying to Advance Recycling and sustainability here on campus which is so exciting but it's really about you that we're working to make the future brighter for you so please I want to invite up Amelia Diaz and Savannah Ferreira good morning on behalf of the Durfee Green Team and AP environmental science

class we welcome you to our environmentally built building we appreciate all the efforts that were taken to create this beautiful building from solar panels on the ceiling to efficient heating systems and water bottle filling stations the facilities here are much more advanced than our previous School we are so happy to see the efforts that are being made to improve the environment in our community especially

with these new grants future generations of our community will now be able to go to school in sustainable electric buses where they'll go to environmentally friendly built schools and go home with prudent Minds for keeping their environment healthy making sustainable choices will become habitual for the Youth resulting in Forever becoming a better place to live these grants are an

investment into our future and we the students of Durfee High School appreciate the hard work done by all of you to make these programs a reality thank you thank you Savannah our future looks a little brighter a little cleaner and a little less polluted because of the efforts of the EPA the DP dep and the elected officials who have advocated for these programs with that said we should

we can and we need to do more as a society community and school we can do better with the choices we make and how we treat the planet this opens the door for more sustainable initiatives in Fall River such as more renewable energy and recycling in our school system an area of focus for our Green Team over the past few years we say there is no Planet B and the truth is there's no

backup plan we have to do the green thing as the Youth of this city our future depends on it these efforts we are celebrating today are Green Solutions that everybody can agree on who would argue against clean water and clean air the Youth of Fall River will grow up in a better place because of these efforts and we applaud you for making them a reality thank you

thank you so much

so that brings to a close our program what I'd like to do is we're going to hand the checks over to the future generation and I think any students who are up here who would like to come up this is for you as well please come up and we'll take photos so everybody come on up all the students let's go

foreign

not too high