EAST PROVIDENCE — The waters off the coast of East Providence will be noticeably more clear in the coming weeks and months after two significant projects commence.
As part of an $87,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Management received earlier this year, two of three derelict barges in the area of Bold Point will be removed. That work is expected to begin in the middle of October.
Last week, the city and other shoreline communities in the state received another bit of good news when Rhode Island’s congressional delegation announced the receipt of a $194,800 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for Middletown-based nonprofit Clean The Bay, Inc. to remove marine debris from the Seekonk and Providence rivers and Upper Narragansett Bay. U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse together with Congressmen Jim Langevin and David Cicilline were a party to the release.
According to the release, for over 100 years, the Providence and Seekonk rivers and portions of the Upper Narragansett Bay have been dirtied by broken and abandoned pilings, wrecked vessels, docks, auto parts, hardware, appliances and other trash. The refuse harms local ecology and has rendered large portions of the waterways unusable to the public. The funding will enable Clean The Bay to begin removal of pilings and other marine debris over the next several years. The organization will also use the funding for outreach and to foster volunteer opportunities with community partners to further cleanup efforts.
Clean the Bay is in an independent, not-for-profit organization started in 2005 whose mission to improve the safety and and attractiveness of Narragansett Bay and the Rhode Island shoreline.
“I commend Captain Kent Dresser and his team. This grant will support a project that has demonstrated great success over the years,” said Sen. Reed, a member of the Appropriations Committee who has worked with the organization since its inception and has helped successfully provide $685,000 in NOAA grants to Clean Bays and its partners over that period.
“Cleaning up the Bay has important health and economic benefits for all Rhode Islanders,” Sen. Reed continued. “Over the years, Clean Bays and their partners has removed tons of debris from Rhode Island waters and shores. This federal grant will expand their capacity and help remove even more trash and refuse from our waters and prevent it from washing up along the coast.”
“As a Rhode Islander who loves our Bay and beautiful rivers, and who understands how a clean, safe shoreline can promote jobs and economic growth, I’ve been a strong advocate for cleaning up these areas,” said Sen. Whitehouse, who, after federal agencies declined to take up the project directly, contacted Clean The Bay in an effort to find a private group with the ability to do the job. “Clean The Bay will put this funding to work restoring a tremendous asset for Providence, East Providence, and other surrounding communities. Congratulations to Captain Dresser and his entire crew on winning this important federal funding.”
“Narragansett Bay and its tributaries serve as centerpieces for Rhode Island tourism and development, and are at the heart of our state’s natural beauty,” said Rep. Langevin. “Protecting and preserving our Bay and rivers, therefore, is an important issue environmentally and economically, and improves quality of life for all Rhode Islanders. I applaud Senator Whitehouse on leading this effort and for his continued environmental stewardship, and I look forward to seeing the finished product when Clean Bays successfully transforms these areas.”
“I am proud that Clean Bays will be receiving nearly $200,000 through NOAA to clean up our shoreline and help create jobs here in Rhode Island,” said Rep. Cicilline. “I congratulate Captain Dresser and everyone at Clean Bays on this exciting announcement, and I look forward to continuing to work with them on this important issue.”
“Thanks to the tremendous support of Senator Whitehouse and the NOAA Marine Debris Program, Clean The Bay will be able to undertake the next phase of a debris mitigation project that’s generations overdue on the shoreline of the Providence River. The impact of the debris removal in that area will have a resounding positive environmental, economic, and social impact! Our crews are poised to get started next month and work in the area through 2016,” said Mr. Dresser, Executive Director of Clean The Bay.
Last year, with the help of a $50,000 grant from Newport’s 11th Hour Racing, Clean The Bay conducted a pilot program in the Seekonk River to test their equipment for safely removing wooden pilings embedded in the riverbed. The results of that program proved Clean The Bay’s equipment highly effective, enabling the organization to pursue the NOAA funding.
This funding has been awarded through the NOAA Restoration Center’s Community-based Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Grants Program, which supports marine debris removal and prevention projects that benefit coastal waterways, habitat, and wildlife. Through this program, NOAA has cleaned up over 4,800 metric tons of marine debris from our oceans since 2006.
Specific to the NOAA grant in East Providence, that money is earmarked to remove the third and largest of the remaining barges once the initial work through the DEM grant is completed, according to the city’s Harbormaster S. Bruce Dufresne. Whatever NOAA money remains, Mr. Dufresne continued, will then be used to clear as many pilings and other debris off the East Providence coastline.
“First and foremost, this helps clean up the environment. Second, it will eliminate hazards to navigation and third those pilings are an eyesore we’ve been looking at for 60, 80, 100 years. It will be good to see them go,” Mr. Dufresne added.
The harbormaster said many of the wood pilings embedded in the river are covered with creosote, the sticky tar substance used in days gone by as a preservative that has been found to be a carcinogen. One of the other pilings on the list to be removed is that used by contractors to construct the original Washington Bridge several decades ago. And some of the debris being targeted for removal is from an old approved fowling ground or dumping area off the East Providence coast where wooden ships and barges were purposely sunk.
“We’re going to use this money to clean up the area as best we can and we’ll keep applying for grants so we can continue in the future,” Mr. Dufresne added.
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