Infrastructure Archives · Page 6 of 18 · New England News Collaborative

What The Biden Administration Will Mean For Climate Change In New England

January 14, 2021

Severe storms. Heat waves. Rising seas. New England is already seeing the impacts of climate change, and scientists project they will become more severe and deadly, shaping how we live and work in the northeastern U.S. In a special ahead of Inauguration Day, the New England News Collaborative and America Amplified look at climate change…

Closure Of MIRA Plant Sets Off Scramble To Recycle Thousands Of Tons Of Wasted Food

December 9, 2020

After decades of burning trash, the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) will close its Hartford incinerator by July 2022. That means hundreds of thousands of tons of trash will be destined for out-of-state landfills, a costly reality that has state and municipal officials questioning how to quickly reduce trash volumes. One solution? Recycling leftover…

COVID-19 Closed Showers for the Homeless. Quick Thinkers Came to the Rescue.

December 3, 2020

This spring, precautions against COVID-19 closed some of the few showers open to people who are homeless and living outdoors, including one in the basement of the Duffy Health Center in Hyannis. Now, with a little ingenuity and some help from the state, showers are back — in a special trailer that meets COVID-19 protocol.…

New Study Shows Methane Leaks Prevalent In Connecticut Cities

November 19, 2020

A new study of natural gas infrastructure in Connecticut says harmful amounts of methane are leaking from aging underground gas pipes. The findings add to an emerging body of science demonstrating the scale of methane leaks in America. Methane is the main part of natural gas. Like carbon dioxide, it’s a greenhouse gas, trapping heat…

Farms Will Harvest Food And The Sun, As Massachusetts Pioneers ‘Dual-Use’ Solar

November 10, 2020

Paul Knowlton owns 300 acres of land in Grafton, and farms about 50. The farm has been in his family for five generation, ever since Knowlton’s great-great-grandfather settled in the Blackstone Valley in 1872. These days Knowlton grows pumpkins, squash and corn. Up a gravel road, past the family cemetery, corn stalks are still standing…

Industry Heavyweights To Invest In UMaine Offshore Wind Project Near Monhegan Island

August 7, 2020

The University of Maine’s effort to pioneer floating offshore wind technology took a $100 million leap forward Wednesday with the announcement that two industry heavyweights are going to invest in development of the project near Monhegan Island. A subsidiary of the Mitsubishi company, called Diamond Offshore Wind, is joining with RWE Renewables to invest the…

Towns Struggle with Costs as ‘Corona-Recycling’ Increases by 20%

August 4, 2020

At the Bourne Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility, everything has its own smell. “You get the gas smell, old trash smell, new trash smell, recycling smell,” said Dan Barrett, general manager of the facility. “There’s a lot of different smells, and if you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know the difference.” After driving his truck…

Pandemic Complicates New Hampshire Cities’ Plans For Dealing With Climate Change-Driven Heat Waves

July 16, 2020

New Hampshire is seeing more heat waves due to climate change. And staying cool is even harder this year because of COVID-19. Our new climate change reporting project, By Degrees, has this look at how New Hampshire’s cities are coping. On one of the hottest days of the summer so far, the sprinklers built into…

When Your Remote Classroom Is Your Car: How Some Rural Students Without Broadband Are Connecting

May 8, 2020

Even though school is closed, on a given day there are about a dozen cars lined up in the parking lot of Sanderson Academy in Ashfield with people using the school’s Wi-Fi. Natalie Szewczyk is one of them. The 18-year-old has turned her Toyota Corolla into a mobile work station. “I stay in my driver’s…

Scott Administration Says Traffic Data Show No Spike In Out-Of-State Entries

May 3, 2020

A massive data-gathering operation at border crossings across Vermont hasn’t shown a major influx in the number of visitors from states with COVID-19 “hotspots,” according to the Scott administration. Scores of employees at the Agency of Transportation have been manually logging license-plate data at as many as 43 border checkpoints since April 1. Rebecca Kelley,…

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