More than $815K in grants approved for Narragansett Bay watershed projects

PROJECTS IN Jamestown, Cranston, Pawtucket, Providence Warwick and Westerly were among those funded through $815,000 in grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration announced Monday by the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.

PROVIDENCE – More than $815,000 in grants will fund 11 projects intended to protect and restore water quality in the Narragansett Bay watershed.

The grants, announced Monday by the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, will support municipalities and nonprofit agencies in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, focusing on projects to address nutrients, pathogens and stormwater.

Grants are funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration. The program’s mission is to protect and restore coastal watersheds of southeast New England from Westerly to Chatham, Mass.

“The Narragansett Bay Estuary Program is very pleased to award grants to municipalities and nonprofit organizations who are taking concrete steps to help protect and restore the water quality in the Narragansett Bay watershed,” Judith Swift, chair of the Estuary Program’s Management Committee, said in a statement. “We also are pleased to applaud the leadership of Senator Jack Reed who spearheaded this program to focus on the coastal watersheds of southern New England.”

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The following projects were funded:

  • $180,000 to the city of Warwick, which will install a series of bioretention basins and vegetated swales within the medians of Suburban Parkway to help improve water quality in the vicinity of Oakland Beach and City Park Beach. The project will be approximately 2,000 feet long, on city?owned property, and it will help reduce the amount of contaminants entering Greenwich Bay.
  • $118,200 to the town of Jamestown, which will build a stormwater system to protect Sheffield Cove, a recreationally important shellfishing ground closed in 2009 due to excessive bacterial contamination. The town also will conduct sampling using microbial source tracking – DNA fingerprinting – to differentiate specific impacts from various source types such as wildlife and domestic animals.
  • $100,000 to the city of East Providence, which will build a stormwater mitigation project at Sabin Point Park on the Providence River to help address elevated bacterial levels. Sabin Point Park is an urban park and beach that is popular for boaters, beachcombers, walkers, and playground use. However, swimming has not been allowed there in decades due to water quality impairments. The goal is to open the first swimmable beach in the Providence metropolitan area in decades.
  • $99,100 for the city of Cranston, which will plan and build one or more stormwater infiltration projects in the Stillhouse Cove portion of the Providence River. This cove in Upper Narragansett Bay experiences severe algal blooms during the summer due to excess nutrients.
  • $83,510 to the city of Pawtucket, which will focus on stormwater mapping and green infrastructure design to prioritize projects for the city’s 45 stormwater outfalls.
  • $57,884 to the town of Westerly, which will identify, prioritize and implement water-quality improvements in Little Narragansett Bay and the lower portion of the Pawcatuck River. This grant will support the town’s work with Save The Bay to identify pollutant sources and develop an implementation plan to address the Phase 1 study area, which includes downtown Westerly. This plan will include recommendations for both structural and non-structural water quality improvements and an interactive map showing the results.
  • $57,338 to the town of Halifax, Mass., which will identify, map and prioritize stormwater outfalls and other sources discharging to the East and West Monponsett Ponds.
  • $45,900 for Clean Ocean Access, Newport and Middletown, which will implement a project, Stormwater pathogens – Find it and Fix it, to identify sources of pathogens impacting Easton’s Beach. This project includes a partnership with the city of Newport, the town of Middletown and state Department of Health. The goal is to track down the sources of bacteria that close the beaches to swimming and develop solutions to fix these recurring problems.
  • $30,000 for the town of East Bridgewater, Mass., to examine solutions to provide limited sewer extensions to serve the densely developed town center.
  • $24,000 for the town of Avon, Mass., to examine stormwater pollution at Trout Brook. The project also will include preliminary design of stormwater projects for nutrient and pathogen removal.
  • $19,260 for the town of Barrington, which is collecting water quality and sediment data and designing green infrastructure projects in and around Brickyard Pond to address water quality impairments.

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