For Rhode Island fishermen, 1998 could not have started much worse: El
Nino rains forced the closing of parts of Narragansett Bay for most of
the winter. And then, in June, disaster struck.
Torrents of rain splashed down on the state, causing sewers to spill
thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the Bay. On June 17 the state
had to close nearly the entire Bay. The closing, which occurred just
before Fathers’ Day and Fourth of July, lasted 11 days – 11 days too
long for fishermen, who lost some $250,000 per week because of it.
“That was devastating to the fishing industry,” said Mike McGiveney,
president of the Rhode Island Shellfishermen’s Association.
Fortunately for fishermen – and the state, which loses millions when the
industry shuts down – the inclement weather did not last. A dry spell
toward the end of the year allowed fishermen to continue working. The
good weather, in fact, saved the year.
“It started off tough,” McGiveney said, “but it ended up pretty decent.”
But while McGiveney and others can only hope that last year’s rainstorms
will not repeat themselves, they are doing something to protect
themselves against something they do have some control over: where
spoils from a massive proposed project to dredge the Providence River
will end up.
The U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers last July announced its preferred
alternatives to dump the approximately 4 million cubic yards of sediment
that must be scooped out of the river in order to return the shipping
channel to its federally authorized depth of 40 feet. Because of
silting, the shipping lane has been sunk to just 28 feet in spots.
One of those preferred sites is a deep depression of Hog Island, known
as a cold-water refuge for lobsters. By dumping about 2.8 million cubic
yards of clean sediment there, as the corps proposes, the lobster
habitat would be destroyed for at least a year.
Fishermen and conservationists, however, say the damage could be
permanent.
But under the current proposal the state would pay just $7.4 million of
the $88.8 million project up front. The federal government would pay
almost all the rest. The corps argues that its preferred dump sites –
chosen among more than 150 alternatives – are the most cost effective
and environmentally sound alternatives available.
In response to broad criticism of the proposal, Gov. Lincoln Almond in
October announced that he would instruct the state Department of
Environmental Management to explore the feasibility of taking the clean
sediments to Rhode Island Sound instead of Hog Island. The question,
however, remains as to whether the federal government will be willing to
pay the additional $46 million it would take to drag the spoils that
much farther out.
If not, the state would have to pick up the tab.
Now, the Army Corps. is considering comments on its initial proposal
made by the DEM and other state and federal agencies. Once its review is
finished it will release a final Environmental Impact Statement
concerning the project in the spring.
But dredging was not DEM’s only major concern in 1998. It also engaged
itself in a battle with the state of Connecticut over the way in which
summer flounder is caught off the Atlantic coast. Each year, the federal
government sets an overall limit – 11.1 million pounds this year – of
how much commercial summer flounder may be caught. It then allots a
percentage of the overall limit to each state.
This year, Rhode Island received 15 percent of the 11.1 million, while
Connecticut was given just 2 percent. The percentages were based on the
amount of summer flounder landings each state had in the years between
1980 and 1989, when no overall limit existed. Connecticut argues that
its landings were low during that time because its policies called for
it to land fish that are no less than 14 inches long – a standard it
says it adopted before all other states.
Now, Connecticut is suing in federal court to remove the quota system so
that a new — and what its says would be fairer – quota system can be
enacted. Rhode Island and New Jersey officials, however, say that the
interim period – in which there would be an overall quota but no state-
by-state quota – would be disastrous because it would cause the fishing
stock to be depleted almost immediately.
Under the current system, states such as Rhode Island may use their
quota system to regulate the industry to be sure their individual shares
of the summer flounder catch last all year.
A decision from a federal district court judge in Hartford, Conn. is
expected soon.
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