DEM Chief Michael Sullivan is focusing his efforts on infrastructure improvements, clean and accessible waterfront parks, and dam safety.
INTERVIEW
Michael Sullivan
Position: Director, R.I. Department of Environmental Management
Background: Before taking the helm at the DEM, Sullivan was a professor of plant sciences at the University of Rhode Island, where he had taught since 1981 and continues to advise students and conduct research. He also has been president of the Richmond Town Council for the past eight years, and was a state senator from 1993 to 1997. He serves on the R.I. Scenic Roadways Board and the boards of Borders Farm Preservation, the R.I. Community Farm, the R.I. Agricultural Lands Preservation Commission and the R.I. Conservation Commission.
Education: B.S. in plant and soil science, University of Rhode Island, 1975; M.S. in agronomy, University of Vermont, 1978; Ph.D. in agronomy, University of Nebraska, 1981.
Residence: Richmond
Age: 53
Michael Sullivan has long tied science with public policy, teaching and conducting research at the University of Rhode Island while serving as a town councilor and state senator. Since last April, he has headed the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
Sullivan said he took the job because “this is the ideal fantasy job for somebody who has an interest in science and the environment and the policy of the environment.”
In an interview with PBN, Sullivan discussed the outlook for his department.
PBN: You run the biggest department in the state and just went through your first budget cycle. How did it go?
SULLIVAN: I’m not gravely disappointed. It’s a very difficult time for the governor, for the General Assembly, because the rate of spending versus the rate of income is out of synchrony. … I sat on the Senate Finance Committee the four years I was in the Senate. It’s a much more abstract process when you’re on a finance committee, because it doesn’t touch as many things, [but] the budget has impacts down to everyday lives. That’s far more painful at times. I look at the faces.
PBN: What were your priorities in this budget?
SULLIVAN: The governor had proposed a $25 million bond for clean-water financing … and I don’t really understand why that didn’t happen. Right now there are already almost $500 million worth of identified wastewater management needs, infrastructure needs and that has clear environmental impact. We have some funds available for this year and next year, but then the program literally runs out of money. One of the big challenges in this state is [that] all of the urban infrastructure, the water and wastewater management systems, is in sad repair, and it hits the ground in two important areas: potable water and drinking water. We’ve got leaky infrastructure. So for every gallon you take out of a well or pump out of the reservoir, in some systems as little as 60 percent gets through to the tap.
PBN: Does that affect everybody?
SULLIVAN: It’s wasted water. … We see an array of places where we have supply challenges. It’s hard to justify drilling a new well or building a new reservoir if you’re losing 15 to 40 percent of what you store. It lacks logic. It’s grossly inefficient. One of the solutions is to fix the leak instead of getting more supply. The bond the governor proposed was $25 million. I think we should have been asking for $100 million. The bond did not pass. … It will mean in 2008 we will need a bigger bond.
PBN: What are some of your goals for this year?
SULLIVAN: You’ll hear me talk about fishable, swimmable, playable for all Rhode Islanders. … We’ve got some systems, some things that we do that are a little nuts. We provide bus transportation for urban residents. Some moms pack their kids up, put them on the bus in Providence, and ride the bus all the way to Narragansett … when we’ve got India Point Park and other places that could be fabulous local recreational areas. … We’ve got a marvelous set of forces, billions of dollars being spent in real estate development. I will insist, to the extent we can, that we embed public access all along there. … We’ve got a great chance to do some enduring things.
PBN: Do you see the DEM as an economic development agency, a guardian of nature, or both?
SULLIVAN: We are critical to economic development. We are an absolute partner in that mission, particularly in the brownfields area, the redevelopment area. My calculation is of the $4.5 billion in tourism dollars coming into the state, DEM accounts for half of it. We do all the fishing protection, the recreation, the beaches and the bay. If we screw up, a lot of tourism dollars that don’t come here.
PBN: Is a surface reservoir ever going to be feasible in the Big River Management Area?
SULLIVAN: Never. Pure economics … it will cost in excess of $1 billion to build it. We don’t have a billion. We can begin to take five to 10 million gallons a day out of there for $25 million, but it’s a natural resource balancing act. … Building a surface reservoir is inefficient if you lose 25,000 gallons a day from evaporation.
PBN: Are you concerned about a hurricane?
SULLIVAN: Yes. That’s why we advocated … the Dam Safety Bill, which gives DEM the right, in the case of unknown ownership or non-responsive ownership of a dam that creates risk, to be able to go in and fix it if necessary. We’re not going to take ownership. It’s going in and making it stable and frequently making it stable means bringing the water level behind the dam down. There are 621 dams in this state; 100 of them are moderately shaky.
PBN: Which is your first love: science or public policy?
SULLIVAN: Both. Unless they touch, neither works as well as it should. I love basic science. Science is a way of living, not a way of thinking.
