With the state considering major economic development proposals such as a deep-water port at Quonset Point, environmental issues these days are largely on the minds of public officials. With Quonset Point Partners, the private firm which proposes to develop the port at Quonset, having submitted its proposals to create a port that would make Rhode Island a major port of call on the East Coast, the state will have to consider the effects of the dredging that would be required to make the area deep enough to handle large container ships.
While fishermen and environmentalists have criticized the plans because of the impact dredging would have on natural habitats, new state Department of Environmental Management Director Jan Harmen Reitsma told Providence Business News in a May 17 interview that, while the permitting issues at Quonset would be formidable, the area does present the state with an excellent opportunity to do “smart growth,” that is, concentrating development in an area in which infrastructure already exists.
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“We should find a way, I think, to make smart economic use of that area that already has a lot of infrastructure,” Reitsma said.
That kind of thinking is becoming more and pervasive statewide as business and community leaders look to plan for development in fast-growing areas throughout the state.
One of their principal concerns is preserving open space and protecting natural resources. The problem has been that growth has already contributed to the decline of many habitats, especially estuaries – the bays, lagoons, and inlets formed where oceans and rivers meet.
Estuaries serve as breeding grounds for many commercially valuable fish. Because development over the years has sprung up in areas close to water bodies, pollutants have entered and destroyed estuary habitats.
For example, much of the eelgrass which used to line the floor of Narragansett Bay has been destroyed.
To restore these habitats, and boost state commercial fishermen, U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee, R-RI announced in April that he is filing legislation that would generate $315 million for estuary habitat restoration projects nationwide, part of an effort to restore one million acres of estuary habitats across the country.
Restoring habitats in salt ponds in Washington County is a principal concern among state and federal environmental officials. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state plan to dredge Potter Pond in South Kingstown, which is considered to be an excellent habitat for commercially valuable fish such as winter flounder. The problem is that much of the eelgrass that provided the spawning grounds for these fish has been covered as rainstorms have washed sand into the pond over time.
The corps is also studying other area salt ponds, including Ninigret Pond in Charlestown, Quonochontaug Pond in Charlestown/Westerly, and Winnapaug Pond in Westerly.
It is searching for the best way to rebuild habitats in each pond. Now, the eastern 100 acres of Ninigret Pond from the breachway to Green Hill Pond are closed to shell fishing because bacteria counts are too high, principally because of faulty septic systems and storm water runoff that carries wastes and street pollutants into the ponds, said David Monk, executive director of the Salt Ponds Coalition, a group of 300 volunteers which monitors Washington County’s nine salt ponds.
Other significant news so far this year includes an offer by the Riverside Cemetery in Pawtucket to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use nearly 20 acres of cemetery land as a disposal site for the four million cubic yards of spoils that the corps proposes to dredge from the Providence River.
The proposal is an alternative to the corps’ proposed disposal sites in Narragansett Bay – one adjacent to the channel between Prudence and Hog Islands, and one off the East Providence coastline – which have been criticized by fishermen and environmentalists because of the damage dumping there would cause to natural habitats. Corps officials, however, have yet to decide if the Riverside Cemetery site can hold enough fill to make it a cost-effective choice. The corps, which will pay the bulk of the proposed $88.8 million job, has said it will pay for the most cost-effective, environmentally acceptable dump sites only.
