Press Release
For Immediate Release: May 13, 2013
Your Business Has Gone Global. Has Your Insurance?
A decade ago, “doing business internationally” was mostly a large-company concern. Today, a manufacturer in…
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Contact: Talia Girard, Public Affairs Specialist
(401) 461-8848 x394
Narragansett Bay Commission Approves Plan to Bury Power Lines
The Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) prepares to bury power lines on its Providence campus.
At its April meeting, the Narragansett Bay Commission Board of Commissioners approved a project to bury the power lines at the Commission’s Providence campus. The Board took into consideration the critical importance of the infrastructure at the NBC’s Field’s Point Wastewater Treatment Facility (FPWWTF) to the public health and environmental stability of Narragansett Bay.
Wastewater treatment facilities are amongst the largest users of electricity in the country. The FPWWTF is the largest in the state of Rhode Island and relies on a continuous supply of electricity. “It is critically important that NBC has reliable utility infrastructure, yet many of the utility poles on the NBC campus are very old,” said Tom Uva, NBC’s Director of Planning, Policy and Regulation. Should the poles or transmission lines fail in a storm, plant operations could face major problems, which might endanger the water quality in upper Narragansett Bay. “The state has faced some major storms within this past year like Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo,” Uva added, “and NBC wants to reassure that our utility infrastructure can withstand any storms in the future.”
NBC has initiated this project to improve system reliability by removing the old utility poles located along Service Road and burying the transmission lines in an underground duct bank. NBC currently has the contract for the project out to bid and the bid opening is scheduled for May 22nd. NBC is looking to complete this project by winter.
The Narragansett Bay Commission owns and operates Rhode Island’s two largest wastewater treatments facilities and provides wastewater collection and treatment services to 350,000 people in the metropolitan Providence area and Blackstone Valley. For more information on the Narragansett Bay Commission’s award-winning contributions to environmental protection and wastewater management, contact the Public Affairs Office at (401) 461-8848 ext. 394, or visit us at www.narrabay.com.
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