AUSTIN, Texas – Fitch Ratings this month assigned a AAA rating to $49 million in Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency’s water-pollution-control, revolving-fund revenue bonds. The rating outlook is stable. more

PROVIDENCE – The state has awarded 28 projects a total of $1,524,725 in recreational trail grants from federal transportation funds. more

Bristol’s Mount Hope Farm has 127 acres of fields, woods, streams and ponds for walking, hiking and exploring. It has a year-round farmers market. Executive Director Jennifer Bristol, pictured above, came onboard a year ago, tasked with developing a five-year plan for the nonprofit farm. “I’ve talked to hundreds of people and they all have in their mind this picture of what the farm is to them,” Bristol said. “Marrying the visions of all those people to allow them to maintain the experience and support the future and health of [the farm] is what has to happen on our end.” more

BOSTON – The Mass. Department of Environmental Protection penalized New Bedford-based waste hauler ABC Disposal Inc., $1,500 for solid-waste violations related to the dumping of excessive amounts of construction and demolition wood at a landfill in December 2012. more

Rob Hancock, president of the board of directors of Save Bristol Harbor, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to repairing the coastal waters of Bristol, doesn’t see a time when the organization won’t be needed. more

Marion Gold is Rhode Island’s second commissioner of energy resources, leading the state’s environmental planning at a critical time when climate change, increasingly intense storms and a sluggish economy have to merge into viable energy policy. more

With “Rubbish” the title of an anthropology course at Rhode Island College, it’s the latest sign state colleges are stepping up the focus on sustainability. more

PROVIDENCE – Jamestown and the Narragansett Bay Commission were among the winners at the annual Narragansett Water Pollution Control Association banquet held in May, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management announced. more

Contestants in the 2013 Miss Rhode Island pageant join other volunteers on May 18 to help clean up the Seekonk River. The project was hosted by the Miss RI Scholarship Program and the Narragansett Bay Commission, which contributed a $500 grant toward the cleanup. The project, which included the planting of cordgrass along the banks of the river, took place at the commission’s Bucklin Point wastewater-treatment facility in East Providence. The Miss Rhode Island competition will be held June 1. more

Rhode Island waters are an informal jigsaw puzzle of oyster farms, territory for wild harvesting of shellfish, water-skiing areas, fishing spots and just plain beautiful water for boating or spectacular views. more