In Hampton, a race to insulate vulnerable neighborhoods against sea-level rise

Millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements are helping one particularly hard-hit Hampton neighborhood cope with the effects of climate change.

In the lead-up to the project’s completion, Gentian Road resident Tom Bassett saw bacteria-contaminated floodwater fill his yard, lap against his home, and pool in the street dozens of times each year during particularly high tides or heavy storms.

At first glance, the upgrades that Bassett and his neighbors on Gentian Road, Meadow Pond Road, and nearby streets spent more than two decades advocating for don’t look like much. A layer of new asphalt on the road hints at the network of new drainage pipes underneath, while an existing pump station in the heart of the neighborhood has been repurposed. Tucked behind Bassett’s home, at the edge of the marsh, a bobber swings at an automated water-level reading station. 

Yet these changes, funded with a mixture of local, state, and federal dollars totaling about $4.3 million, have had a big impact on the neighborhood. By Bassett’s estimation, they have reduced the incidence of flooding there by about 75%. 

That change was evident on Tuesday morning, if you knew where to look. Damp rings encircled the catch basins on the marsh side of Gentian Road, the asphalt still drying after water had poured in from the marsh during high tide the night before. The rest of the road was still dry, something that would not have been the case before the upgrades, according to officials.

“Roads could become impassable. I saw it first-hand,” said Executive Councilor Janet Stevens, delivering remarks during an event celebrating the upgrades on Tuesday. “Drainage outlets could be submerged for extended periods, and residents were left wondering when the next storm would bring another round of flooding.”

The stormwater drainage system serving the Meadow Pond neighborhood was built in the 1950s, according to Pauline Perkins, watershed management specialist with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. The system featured an outfall pipe leading into Meadow Pond, an estuary connected to the Hampton salt marshes and, ultimately, the sea. 

But when periodic high tides brought water levels above the level of that outfall, the drainage system no longer worked — and the system wound up channeling water in the opposite direction, right back into the neighborhood, Perkins said. Other problems like cracked pipes were additional weaknesses that allowed the rising water table to inundate what was intended as a drainage network.

The worsening conditions caused by climate change and sea level rise are necessary considerations for the Hampton Department of Public Works, according to department Director Jennifer Hale and Deputy Director Joseph Lynch.

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As greenhouse gases trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere, water from the melting polar ice caps is causing water levels to rise in the planet’s oceans. Liquids also take up more space as they warm, meaning that the rising overall temperature of Earth’s seas is another factor in their levels creeping upward. The global average sea level has risen between 8 and 9 inches since 1880, and the rate at which the ocean is rising is accelerating, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Sea-level rise and the increasing intensity of storms and rainfall events, also worsened by climate change, have led to more frequent flooding in coastal areas like Hampton. 

Lynch said those changes must factor in to every decision about Hampton’s future that he makes. 

“What has happened over generations is true. If you believe in it or not, you can’t deny that there is sea-level rise,” he said Tuesday morning. “… Everything we do now in the coastal area is always in light of sea-level rise, whether it’s our wastewater treatment plant, our sewer collection systems, our drainage system, our roadway networks — everything is driven by recognition of what that future condition might look like.”

Hampton’s flooding problems aren’t limited to the Meadow Pond neighborhood. The town has paid for more engineering studies and is turning its attention to other neighborhoods for possible next steps, said Hampton Select Board Vice Chairman Jeff Grip. 

For Bassett, the upgrades to his neighborhood are a big relief. The floods brought dangerous bacteria to his door, compromised travel, and exposed his car to corrosive salt water, he said. They haven’t completely stopped; after all, the drainage solutions have their limits. But for Bassett, it’s a win in a fight that stretches on beyond Meadow Pond. 

“I think (the project’s completion) builds optimism that there are ways of coping with the problem,” he said. “But, you know, it’s a way of coping, it’s not solving it. The real issue is greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.”