WHEN IT RAINS IN Fitchburg, water races down Spring Street, the steep hill next to Longsjo Middle School. As it flows, it picks up oils, animal feces, and other pollutants that lay atop the asphalt and funnels them straight into a storm drain, and then the canals of the city.

There’s little vegetation to slow, absorb, and clean the water. The area is densely developed with houses on both sides and mostly paved over. Yards are small, and the middle school doesn’t have an outdoor green space. For a time, residents looked forward to a plan to install a rain garden halfway down the hill — a plan that was expected to mitigate the worst of the flooding, which pushes bacteria into the drinking water system.

In September 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Nashua River Watershed Association — a non-profit climate resilience organization representing 32 different towns throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire — a $500,000 multi-year environmental justice grant for stormwater management.

The project would have created green space near the middle school, completed restoration of a public park, and installed a small “pocket forest” in the south-west sector of the city where runoff is increasingly common.

Six months later, EPA officials terminated the grant because it “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”

More than a dozen environmental justice grants in Massachusetts — as well as hundreds across the country — were cut for being what new administration deemed “forced discrimination programs.” In total, the Bay State lost more than $90 million for projects like home remediations to combat asthma triggers in Springfield, to restoring tree canopies in Chelsea to cool heat islands, and mitigating flooding in Fitchburg.

These communities “all had recurring flooding issues or issues with drainage and a lack of urban green space that we were hoping that these projects could tackle,” said Ryan Hennrikus, senior land and climate associate at the Nashua River Watershed Association, the organization that applied for the grant.

Longsjo Middle School was built nearly 100 years ago and is the only public school in Fitchburg without any outdoor recreation space. The students take recess in the gym.

In recent years, Fitchburg has seen more damage to the city’s hilly and largely paved terrain. In 2023, massive flooding, clogged drains, damaged houses, and collapsed roads. The city’s vulnerability has become more difficult to ignore in recent years. According to one study, roughly 14.7 percent of all properties in Fitchburg — over 1,200 — are at risk of flooding over the next 30 years.

With the city’s 2026 budget already showing a deficit in its wastewater, stormwater, and drainage funds, and with those departments receiving less money than the previous year, the loss of EPA grants leaves a widening gap between the city’s infrastructure needs and its ability to pay for them. As storms worsen, the city was relying on EPA funding to help mitigate some of the worst outcomes.

When the grants were first announced in 2023, then-Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale noted that, “for years, the water quality in the Nashua River suffered as a result of the City’s booming industry.” This project, he said, “serves as a continuation of efforts to address the negative impacts of urbanization on the river, improve the health of the waterbody, and restore the pristine natural ecosystems along its banks. Doing so will undoubtedly help the City address the issue of climate change through improved climate resiliency and enhanced quality of life for residents.”

His successor, Mayor Sam Squailia, lamented the lost grant. “We had a great resilience project with Nashua River Watershed Association that was unfortunately cut,” she said.

A spokesperson for the EPA did not answer questions directly related to the grant being rescinded, but said in a statement that the Biden administration’s focus on DEI programs and environmental justice was “wasteful.”

“Unlike the previous administration, we fully understand that ensuring clean land, air, and water for all Americans requires us to spend precious taxpayer dollars wisely,” the statement continued.

The grant would have included a rain garden — a shallow, planted depression in the ground designed to collect runoff water. A rain garden is typically filled with native plants, flowers, grasses, and decorative rocks or mulch, designed to filter out pollutants in the water as it flows. Beyond its environmental function, the garden would have also included outdoor classroom space for the students at Longsjo Middle School to utilize.

“It’s small, but it would give some space to the school,” said Jeremy Roche, assistant superintendent of finance and operations for Fitchburg Public Schools.

The grant also included funding for stream bank restoration along a section of Sand Brook in Parkhill Park. For decades, portions of the brook have been confined within stone and mortar walls, forcing water to move quickly in a straight line. The proposed restoration would have removed sections of those artificial walls and regraded the banks to restore a more natural meander that would slow water flow during storms, reduce erosion, and allow more water to seep into the surrounding soil rather than surge downstream.

Another key part of the project was replanting native vegetation along the banks to further stabilize soil, provide shade to cool the water, and create habitats for wildlife.

A third component of the grant targeted Bartley-Nolan Park, where the Nashua River Watershed Association planned to install a dense “pocket forest,” with native vegetation planted closely together to mimic a New England hardwood forest. The trees, shrubs, and other plants would help to clean runoff water and restore soil health, while supporting the natural biodiversity of the area.

The three projects would not have eliminated flooding entirely. But they were intended to function as distributed buffers — small interventions placed strategically in neighborhoods that experience recurring runoff and have limited green space.

Much of the work on the projects was completed before the grant was revoked.

“We had all of the projects identified. Most of the work was done. And that’s where it gets like, ah, what a shame; we’re that close,” said Cliff Simmonds, executive director of the Nashua River Watershed Association. “Implementation is often times one of the easier pieces of a project.”

With the grant money terminated, the Nashua River Watershed Association is shifting its focus to raising funds from private donors and local community members, putting all three projects on hold until funding needs are met.

Despite the setback, the school district intends to move forward with the rain garden on its own, still in collaboration with the Nashua River Watershed Association and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Roche said. The district is planning to budget roughly $100,000 to develop the vacant lot, which would be enough to turn it into usable greenspace for students and the surrounding community. The restoration project is currently being targeted for fiscal year 2028.

“These were impactful projects,” Simmonds said. “And I think by not walking away from them, by continuing to push for getting these projects to the implementation phase, we’re really sending that message that no, the impact hasn’t changed because the funding’s not there.”

This was a multimedia reporting project of the Media Innovation Studio at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. The reporting team for this story included Asher Ben-Dashan and Perris Fisher, working with journalism professor Dan Zedek.

This story has been updated with comment from Fitchburg Mayor Sam Squailia.