Boston’s groundwater threatened by warmer temps

CLIMATE: Warmer springs threaten the Boston area’s groundwater supply, potentially depleting drinking water supplies and harming agriculture and wildlife, according to a recent University of Massachusetts Boston study. (Boston Globe)

ALSO:
• Two federal climate scientists use an SUV outfitted with sensors to detect urban greenhouse gas hot spots in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. (Inside Climate News)
• New York financial regulators publish draft guidance around how banks and mortgage issuers should conduct their lending activities amid climate change. (E&E News)

BUILDINGS: The Massachusetts state legislature should use $300 million of the state’s federal pandemic relief funds to retrofit and decarbonize public housing and other municipal buildings, a coalition of advocacy groups says. (WBUR)

UTILITIES: A Central Maine Power-backed group files enough signatures but waits to be formally certified by the state to add a referendum on next year’s ballot directly competing with one to form a consumer-owned utility. (Maine Public)

COAL: CSX will make $115,000 in state penalties and payments to a local nonprofit to settle Maryland environment officials’ civil claims over a Baltimore coal facility explosion last year. (Baltimore Sun)

TRANSPORTATION Amtrak introduces a new train model to numerous routes throughout the Northeast that, among other features, are more fuel efficient and emit fewer particulate emissions. (news release)

GRID: In New York City, Staten Island residents and parishioners worry about potential health and safety consequences of converting an underused church parking lot into a lithium-ion battery storage facility. (SI Live)

SOLAR:
• A recently approved 2 MW solar farm in downeast Maine faces a permit appeal by nine neighbors who claim they weren’t sufficiently notified about the project. (Bangor Daily News)
• A proposed 750-acre solar array in New York would be sited on the winter habitat of several endangered, larger grassland birds. (Times Union)
• A Vermont town chooses not to intervene in the application process of a 4.13 MW solar array within its borders, throwing its support behind the project. (Valley News)
• A Pennsylvania township pushes back on a solar developer’s claim that it didn’t allow for enough public engagement when it amended its solar regulations. (News-Item)

AGRICULTURE:
• Vermont’s new draft rules around pesticide use don’t account for the agricultural impacts of climate change or encourage alternatives, environmentalists argue. (Vermont Public)
• Increasingly warmer, shorter winters in New Hampshire make it harder for the state’s blueberry crop to thrive. (NHPR)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A New York village uses state grants to help replace older gas-powered municipal vehicles with three electric models to bolster against fluid fuel prices. (Newsday)
• A central Maine pharmacy transitions its fleet to all-electric vehicles to minimize emissions when delivering prescriptions. (news release)

AFFORDABILITY: Eversource tells regulators in Connecticut and Massachusetts that ​“the only thing that can bring prices down” is a larger natural gas supply. (WSHU)