Federal funding feeds aquaculture program

The association has partnered with Roger Williams University in securing $100,000 from the Rhode Island Aquaculture Initiative, a $1.5 million federally funded effort spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed. The funding will go toward staff and equipment for the project, which involves growing 1 million seed clams in upwellers, or special cages that nourish clams with a constant supply of seawater.

Young clams will eventually be transplanted to beds in Greenwich Bay and Narragansett Bay for public and commercial harvesting.

The project is being carried out in partnership with Greenwich Bay Marina in Warwick. The Rhode Island Aquaculture Initiative is a federal grant to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) to grow aquaculture in Rhode Island.

Cleanup begins at Metro Center Plaza in Warwick

WARWICK – Environmental cleanup recently began for the $55 million Metro Center Plaza project within the Warwick Station Redevelopment District, a 70-acre planned development surrounding T.F. Green Airport.

United Retek, an environmental-contracting and remediation firm based in Medway, Mass., started cleanup of some 2,000 tons of contaminated soil on the six-acre Metro Center Plaza site, according to a city press release. The contamination is left over from the location’s use as a foundry.

The company will stabilize the soil using a process it pioneered, which allows the contaminated material to be cleaned on site and then reused as a base-paving course.

The Metro Center Plaza eventually will include luxury housing and two hotels directly across from a proposed Amtrak train station. The $55 million project, which is being developed by Warwick businessman Joe Piscopio, is the first in the redevelopment district.