Friday, November 20, 2009

A Watery Success at the State House

By Chip Young

Water conservation bill can help economy and environment

http://media.turnto10.com/images/uploads/HuntRiverFlowingBlog.jpg

It was three years in the making, but passage of the Water Use and Efficiency Act during this year’s General Assembly session marked a real success in a climate where everything seemed to be depressing news about the state budget.

Sponsored by Sen. Sue Sosnowski and Rep. Frank Ferri, the Act is designed to build upon water conservation to improve management of the state’s water resources The Coalition for Water Security (full disclosure: I am a member), had worked with legislators, state agencies, water suppliers and the agriculture community for three years to build consensus support for the bill. In the end, House passage and a unanimous 38-0 vote in the Senate sent The Water Use and Efficiency Act to the governor for final approval.  (Governor Carcieri allowed it to become law without his signature, reasons not forthcoming.)

“This bill will give the state an excellent way to promote economic development and protect the environment through water conservation,” said Sheila Dormody, coordinator of the statewide Coalition for Water Security, a 17-member public advocacy group which helped craft the legislation and build consensus among legislators, state agencies, water suppliers, the agriculture community, and environmental and economic organizations.  “It has been a long time coming, but we believe all of Rhode Island’s residents and businesses will benefit from the conservation measures the Act will put into place.”

According to the Coalition, when implemented, the Act will:
• Ensure availability of water for priority uses such as economic development, farming, firefighting, and drinking, primarily by reducing overuse of water in the summer.
• Capitalize on the competitive economic advantage that can be offered by a water supply that is adequate to meet our needs.
• Protect the state’s invaluable natural resources by maintaining enough water in its rivers and streams.
• Improve the structure and operation of the Water Resources Board.

A planned pilot program by the Water Resources Board in the Hunt-Annaquatucket-Pettaquamscutt Rivers watershed may show how the bill’s initiatives will pay off elsewhere in the state.  Not only is the “HAP” watershed a stressed area, but it is affected by one of the biggest problems facing the state’s water resources: over-watering lawns in the summer.  This increase in usage at a time when supllies are most limited has been as much as two to three times above the winter average in the City of Warwick.  This is exacerbated by the fact that lawns simply don’t need to be constantly drenched to thrive.

Anything a Rhode Island resident or business can do to conserve water means that the state can have a competitive economic advantage, and provide enough of a back-up supply so that new wells are not necessary.  All the while maintaining enough water in our streams and rivers to support habitats for the fish, birds and plants that make this a very nice place to call home.  Ball’s in your court now, and kudos to the General Assembly for bright spot in dark times.

The Coalition for Water Security represents the Aquidneck Land Trust, Audubon Society of Rhode Island, Clean Water Action, Conservation Law Foundation, Environment Council of Rhode Island, Environment Rhode Island, Grow Smart Rhode Island, Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, Narrow River Preservation Association, Rhode Island Land Trust Council, Rhode Island Natural History Survey, Sierra Club Rhode Island Chapter, Save The Bay, The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, and the Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Narragansett Bay’s Menhaden Treasure

By Chip Young

Menhaden are an economic and environmental asset for Narragansett Bay

Any half-aware saltwater fisherman knows that when it comes to good bait for the stripers or bluefish that are beginning to eat their way up the Bay about now, there is nothing much better than menhaden.  Last year, researchers figured that there were 24 million mehaden at an average of about one pound apiece in the Bay during June.  That’s a lot of fish, boys and girls.

This year the influx is not as high as last year’s watery stampede, but the menhaden are still there, and omnipresent.  My good friend John Torgan, Baykeeper for Save the Bay, has had his eye on them for over a month now, waiting for the time to strike the biggest of them, and then carry on up the food chain using the menhaden to catch their most feared predators.  As in 2008, he also expects to see them appear well up the Providence River, as they continue to show their flag from one end of the Bay to the other.

Menhaden have a grand tradition in Rhode Island waters, as evidenced by the accompanying black and white photo sent to me by Ted Hayes, editor of East Bay Newspapers and the Bristol Phoenix, which shows fishermen netting menhaden in Bristol Harbor generations ago.  They also have a very unique economic and environmental impact.  The piece below is by one of my colleagues at the URI Coastal Institute, Brita Jessen, which gives some detail about why these oily little buggers mean so much to Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island:

By Brita Jessen

When you take a good look over Narragansett Bay, you could see a shimmering silver patch on the surface.  This is the typical sign of a menhaden (a.k.a. pogey, bunker, or fatback) school, which contributes commercial and ecological value to the Narragansett Bay community for the summer.

Rhode Islanders have depended on this seasonal windfall for centuries.  Menhaden oil and meat has been used for machinery, animal feed, fertilizer, and fishing bait.  In addition to supplying several commodities, menhaden also contribute to the functioning and productivity of the bay’s ecosystem. 

It is the responsibility of fisheries managers to keep the local stock at a sustainable level that meets economic and ecological needs, which is akin to hitting multiple moving targets at once.  Having a greater understanding of the role that menhaden play within the bay can help all stakeholders communicate on the best strategy for managing the local population. 

After almost two centuries, the Rhode Island menhaden harvest for oil was banned in 2002, as the stock had plunged since the 1970s.  A menhaden management area was also established and monitored in Narragansett Bay.  Since then, catch for use as bait is the only commercial menhaden harvest allowed in Rhode Island waters. The majority of this harvest is used by local lobstermen and fishermen, at a lower cost compared with imports from outside areas. 

Another commercial benefit comes from menhaden’s role in the food chain.  Menhaden are key prey for larger coastal fish such as striped bass and bluefish.  The presence of a menhaden school in the bay attracts the sport fish, which are then pursued by commercial and recreational fishers.  A loss of menhaden abundance can result in lower amounts of food for the carnivorous species, affecting economic potential in the fishing sector.

There is ecological value of the menhaden population in Narragansett Bay as well (which arguably translates into economic gain).  Menhaden feed by filtering out small algae, plankton, and detritus in the water. Although those algae and plankton are an essential basis for the bay’s food web, an excess amount can throw the system off-balance.  It’s possible that the filtering capability of menhaden contains some of the periodic algae overload.  This activity led to the description of menhaden as “livers of the bay,” referencing our own organs that remove substances before a critical level is reached.  Over a summer season, an adult menhaden can filter around four million liters of water.  At that rate, the estimated 2007 population could filter up to 70 percent of the total volume of Narragansett Bay.  Their active role within the bay provides value to our community as well as when they are harvested from the bay. 

It can be hard to determine the status of the Atlantic menhaden population, as stock levels are known to fluctuate.  The local population appears to be increasing: 2008 was the fourth consecutive year of higher menhaden abundance in southern New England, with 24 million pounds estimated in Rhode Island waters.  The 2007 menhaden population supported a bait fishery that landed 450,000 to 500,000 pounds per week.  It remains to be seen if changes in local management strategies have contributed to the increase.  The state Department of Environmental Management currently limits commercial menhaden harvest to 50 percent of the incoming population, a level that has already been reached for the beginning of this season, but could adjust if more menhaden come. 
Humans have a visible impact on the coast-wide menhaden stock.  One example is apparent in the average age of the fish.  Menhaden can live 10-12 years, but most of the current population is no older than three.  The reason for this is fishing pressure, which takes out the adults before they have reached a large size. Menhaden are now much smaller than they once were, which may be affecting the coastal food web.  But with reasonable management practices, the population could approach former levels. 
This small, oily fish is an important asset for many stakeholders in the bay and surrounding communities.  Multiple perspectives need to be considered when determining what the status of the local stock should be.  Stakeholders, managers, and policy makers need to make a coordinated, systemic effort to carefully manage menhaden populations to the greatest benefit, and communicate these intentions to the public.
- Brita Jessen is a Coastal Fellow with the University of Rhode Island Coastal Institute at the Graduate School of Oceanography.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Rolling on the Rivers

By Chip Young

Helping fish find their way

It isn’t easy for fish to make their way around the state’s waterways, what with dams and culverts being built end upon end.  And although the new financing of fish ladders has been a help, there is a another new program from the USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Services that is doing a nice, under-the-radar program locally, as explained by two of its biggest advocates.

By Harriet E. Powell and Phoukham Vongkhamdy

Rhode Island’s trout never get more excited attention paid to them on than the opening day of fishing season, this year on April 11.

Unless you are working for the R.I. River and Stream Continuity Project, that is.

The Rhode Island Resource Conservation and Development Area Council (RC&D) through its affiliation with the USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) is working in partnership with Trout Unlimited’s Narragansett and Northern Chapters and the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association to coordinate efforts to create stream and river crossing areas for migrating brook trout and other fish, and make it easier for fish to move continuously through the waterways of the state.  This partnership is supported by a volunteer program that inventories culverts and other river and stream crossings that inhibit the movement of fish and wildlife.

Long, linear streams and rivers are vulnerable to fragmentation.  A number of human activities can disrupt the continuity of river and stream ecosystems.  Dams are a major factor in throwing a monkey wrench into the ecological landscape, and Rhode Island has approximately 500 dams.  But there is also a growing concern about the role of road crossings—and especially culverts—that can interrupt habitat continuity.

RC&D and USDA-NRCS have provided training to Trout Unlimited volunteers and members of the general public who are at the heart of the success of the project.  The first efforts of the River and Stream Continuity Project have been in the Upper and Lower Wood River, Queens River, Beaver River, Upper Pawcatuck and Clear River watersheds where more than 600 crossings have been surveyed.  The project’s sights are now set on expanding into the Moosup River and lower Blackstone River watersheds, making it a truly statewide effort.

The information being gathered about fish and wildlife passages are being used to locate potential restoration projects, and also for research into improving culvert designs and lessening the impact of other stream crossing barriers.  It is something one doesn’t normally think about, but life is not just one easy roll on the river for trout and other species.

The world of streams and rivers is a complex one due to the human-created problems that expand as the population increases and more and more infrastructure is inflicted upon these ecosystems.  By marrying professional expertise with volunteer dedication and commitment, steps are being made to lessen habitat loss and degradation; decrease road and stream kills that lead to loss and fragmentation of once-unified wildlife populations; and reduce disruptions to the normal ebb and flow of nature.

Through this stream continuity initiative there is a great potential for re-connecting many miles of rivers and streams that would benefit migratory fish species (salmon, river herring and shad) and also local fish and wildlife (trout, freshwater mussels and crayfish).  Then perhaps the only thing that Rhode Island’s trout and their brethren will have to worry about are all those flies and worms being thrown enticingly into their paths when the fishing season begins every April.

- Harriet E. Powell is president of the Rhode Island RC&D Area Council; Phoukham Vongkhamdy is the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Services state conservationist.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Quonnie’s Quahogs

By Chip Young

Group effort stocks shellfish sanctuary

Ninety thousand clams.  That sounds like some hard-boiled mobster in a 1950s noir film describing his take from a bank heist.

It’s a little more inspired and uplifting than that, however.

For the second year in a row, a major transplant of nearly 20,000 pounds of shellfish (approximately 90,000+ individual clams) into a sanctuary in Quonochontaug Pond was carried out by a conservation partnership and its volunteers. This now doubles the total number of clams in the sanctuary.  This is a good thing.

The transplant restoration project is done as part of the national partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Community-based Restoration Program and The Nature Conservancy, and also includes the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, Save the Bay, the Salt Ponds Coalition and the University of Rhode Island.

This year’s transplant to “Quonnie” again came from East Greenwich, and was directed by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management and the R.I. Shellfishermen’s Association, who worked with volunteers to harvest clams in the morning from Rhode Island Clam Company in East Greenwich, RI. The clams were then transported by truck to the Quonnie site at the R.I. State Boat Ramp in Westerly. 

Volunteers then joined members of the various organizations to re-plant the shellfish in the Pond’s “spawner sanctuary.”  Last year, I was one of those folks who were humping 50-pound bags of quahogs from a flatbed truck onto what seemed an endless processions of boats supplied by the locals from the Salt Ponds Coalition, one of the oldest and premier citizen volunteer groups in the Ocean State.  But it beats the office, as many who arrived on both ends of the effort will testify. 

The sanctuary prohibits clam harvest, but serves as a breeding ground for the shellfish, eventually increasing the number of clams in the entire pond.  As they feed, the transplanted clams will clean roughly one million gallons of water per day, an amount five times the size of the New England Aquarium’s Giant Ocean Tank.  Cleaner water reduces the potential for harmful algae blooms, making the pond a healthier place for people and wildlife.

“TNC is thrilled to be building on last-years successful transplant of over 20,000 clams each into Ninigret and Quonnie. We learned so much last year through our tremendous partnership with the Salt Ponds Coalition, Save the Bay, and DEM.  Now we want to get closer to our goal of having fully sustainable clam populations in these ponds, for the good of the ponds and for the enjoyment of Rhode Islanders.” explained Janet Coit, director of the Rhode Island Chapter of TNC.  “Today’s shellfish transfer, coupled with another in Ninigret Pond later this month, will not only help ensure the good health of Rhode Island’s marine environment but will also help provide for the long-term viability of Rhode Island shellfish industry.”

Now in its second year, NOAA and TNC are providing $143,414 in financing for the restoration project, with additional technical support contributed by NOAA and the University of Rhode Island. A similar shellfish transplant will take place in Ninigret Pond on May 13.  The restoration project is testing the value of combining shellfish with eelgrass restoration, as scientists look for ways to restore the entire pond ecosystem.  A full-scale eelgrass transplant led by Save the Bay occurred in Ninigret Pond in September, 2008.

This hands-on transplant effort was coordinated by DEM Marine Fisheries, led by Dennis Erkan, working with the R.I. Shellfishermen’s Association, whose members were contracted to harvest the clams.  The shellfish were taken from “uncertified waters” in Greenwich Cove, where they are not allowed to be harvested for eating, and, after being tested to ensure they were healthy, placed in the spawner sanctuary, where they are also prohibited from being taken.  By breeding in these protected areas, the shellfish will naturally extend the range of the clam population into areas with clean water, and healthy clams will seed and grow, providing recreational fishing opportunities as well as restoring the overall health of the Pond.

Volunteers for the effort, who are also being recruited for the May 13 transplant in Ninigret Pond are being coordinated by Save the Bay, renowned for its volunteer organizing capabilities; and the Salt Ponds Coalition, the local citizen volunteer monitoring group which has been the champion for protecting the health of the iconic South County ponds for decades.  To sign up for the upcoming transplant, contact Rebekah Kepple at Save the Bay at (401) 315-2709.  Volunteers should be able to lift a 50-pound bag, and will have to provide their own gear, including closed-toe shoes or waders, and work gloves.

Ninety thousand clams. That’s a lot, even for some roscoe-wielding tough guy.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Water on the Brain

By Chip Young

Coalition pushes for water supply efficiency

In current times, focusing on how to wisely save more money is critical.  It is equally as important to concentrate on conserving Rhode Island’s most important natural resource—water.

There is a feeling at the State House and among advocates for a safe and efficient water supply system that this will be the year that consensus is reached and something is actually achieved, rather than ending up in a snarl over minor points when everyone is in agreement over key issues like conservation.  If you share those concerns, you would do well to keep an eye on the water ball this session as it bounces its way through the budget crisis landscape, and make sure folks at the General Assembly know it is an issue that can’t be ignored.

Representative Frank Ferri submitted legislation on March 3 aimed at encouraging conservation, protecting the natural resources that make up the state’s shared water system, maintaining the competitive economic edge that Rhode Island’s water provides, ensuring fair pricing and supporting the upkeep and operation of the water infrastructure.

The bill, the Water Conservation and Competitiveness Act, will accomplish three important goals simultaneously:
• Improve efficiency in the state’s water use—conservation is the fastest and cheapest way to make more water available for economic activity.
• Ensure availability of water for priority uses such as economic development, drinking water, farming and firefighting.
• Deliver the water Rhode Islanders need for priority uses while protecting natural resources that support economic activity and make Rhode Island such an attractive place to live.
“Action on improving Rhode Island’s water supply system is needed because summer water demand is significantly higher than winter demand, driven primarily by residential outdoor use,” said Representative Ferri, a Democrat who represents District 22 in Warwick.  “This increased summer use is taxing our rivers and streams, and it is pushing us to look for new and expensive sources of water.  Conserving water should be a top priority for all Rhode Islanders, because it can contribute to economic growth while still protecting our environment.  We need to have a concrete plan that balances our needs with our resources, and have a system that encourages everyone in the state to help make it work.  With this bill, we can do that.”
According to the Coalition for Water Security, a partnership of 17 leading Rhode Island public interest organizations (of which I am a member, full disclosure), the Water Conservation and Competitiveness Act will allow water suppliers to improve the efficiency of water use, especially for residential outdoor use in the summer.  It also allows water suppliers to charge more for wasteful water use, providing incentives for efficiency and increasing fairness for use of the shared resource, and provides for economical rate structures that make a basic level of residential use affordable.  Water suppliers will also be able to save consumers money and make water delivery more reliable by establishing a funding mechanism that will allow for maintenance and infrastructure repair on a “pay as you go” basis. 

Representative Ferri’s proposals grow from concerns in his own city.  Lawn watering is blamed for water use levels that often double in the summer, and has been known to triple during that season.  That demand comes at a time when water availability is at its lowest.

“We must capitalize on the potential competitive economic advantage that our water supply affords the state,” added Representative Ferri.  “Conservation is the key to maintaining that edge in the business world, while still protecting the natural resources that make the state a wonderful place to live and visit.”

This makes the second straight year that Representative Ferri has sponsored legislation at the behest of the Coalition for Water Security, and with high hopes, as the Coalition has been working with legislators, water suppliers, state agencies and the agriculture community to hone a bill that meets everyone’s needs as well as possible.  It’s time to break through the political dam, and damn well get something done.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Environmental Sea Change in Washington

By Chip Young

Breaking the log jam

Last summer, people who deal with Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and their D.C. offices all heard the same song when inquiring about upcoming federal support for their environmental projects: “We won’t know anything until November 4th.”

The bitterness and division between the Democrats and the GOP was such that there was no chance of any bipartisan compromise in any way, shape or form.  You would probably have not had a chance to get an agreement between the two parties on funding for a guaranteed cure for cancer while the presidential campaign was in swing. 

The rule of thumb was that if John McCain was elected president, you could start going to private donors with cap and cup in hand because you would not be seeing any funding change in the Bush administration’s anti-environment stance should Senator “Drill, baby, drill” be elected.  But if Barack Obama won, look for a sea change in Washington’s actions on environmental issues.

It isn’t happening overnight.  There was already a delay in getting things up and rolling in Obamaworld due to the GOP freezing any new actions while George W. Bush remained in the White House, not to mention the lingering animosity over the result of the election, and most of Congress heading home for the holidays.  (Not that our politicos are any different from you and me—what did you honestly get done during most all of December?)

But now the log jam is breaking, and hopefully in Rhode Island’s favor. The state has always been blessed by having a D.C. delegation that is strongly supportive of environmental initiatives, in part because their constituents let them know it is a priority for them.  Rhode Islanders’ concern for the environment and their ad hoc stewardship is evident every time there is a catastrophe like the North Cape oil spill, when thousands of people come flying to the rescue as volunteers to help with the clean-up.  Now we need to have the political leaders of that constituency fighting for a variety of bills and grants that will bolster the state’s natural resources and how we plan for and manage them.

These initiatives range from Farm Bill monies (which, many people are unaware, also fund aquaculture projects) to the monitoring of Narragansett Bay to renewable/alternative energy to land conservation.  It is not an easy job in the nation’s capitol, as other senators and representatives have their knives out and sharpened to compete for limited funds in this remarkably grim economic time.  But at least the Obama administration has opened the door to these requests, a door that was usually slammed shut by the previous administration, or permitted access to only large corporate special interests.

So the next time you see Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Patrick Kennedy or Jim Langevin during one of their visits home to The Ocean State, thank them for their past work and encourage them to keep bringing home that organic bacon. And perhaps a tip of the John Deere cap to our new president, while you are at it.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Ocean Zoning for Offshore Wind Energy Moves Forward

By Chip Young

Best science to guide potential wind farm siting

You just don’t plop down wind energy turbines anywhere in the ocean and say, “That’s where they’re going.“  It doesn’t matter whether you are The Big Sir himself, you need a little bit of guidance and a lot of input, especially from scientists and the folks who know those areas like their own backyards, such as fishermen.

The state’s Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), of which I am a part, has begun the process of zoning waters off the shore of Rhode Island—both federal and state. The Ocean SAMP team has also begun meeting with key stakeholders, such as those commercial fishermen and municipalities that may be affected, among many others, as part of its formal stakeholder process, to get as much informed knowledge and opinion as possible.

But it is important to realize first and foremost that the process involved is one that was originally intended—before the wind farm was a gleam in Governor Don Carcieri’s eye—to zone those waters for future use, much as you would zone on land.  The accrued knowledge and its benefits are meant to extend far beyond just the siting of a wind farm.

A recent op-ed piece in the Providence Journal on January 7 by the Coastal Resources Management Council’s Michael Tikoian and Grover Fugate, discusses what is a very interesting project by the state, and one which is likely to become a national model.  And they can explain it a lot better than I can.  Read on…

MAPPING RHODE ISLAND’S OCEANIC WATERS
By Michael Tikoian and Grover Fugate

Over the next two years, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council will be developing something groundbreaking: the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), a two-year research and planning process that will zone the state’s off-shore waters.

The CRMC recognizes that Rhode Island’s coastal and offshore waters are already heavily used, and will continue to face new development pressure. This zoning will designate offshore waters to protect a variety of high-priority uses and habitats for commercial fishing; critical habitats for fish, marine animals, and birds; marine transport; and more.

Among many other responsibilities, the CRMC is charged with managing the state’s submerged lands. The CRMC has been zoning the state’s waters since 1983, for uses ranging from conservation areas to industrial ports, so this is familiar territory for the council. All eyes will be on the CRMC and the State of Rhode Island — across the country and internationally — as the planning process comes to a close and the CRMC implements its seventh and largest SAMP.

One of the major uses that will be identified through the SAMP’s scientific research process is possible siting locations for alternative energy, namely wind farms. Using the best available science, along with public input and involvement, the CRMC hopes to identify areas most suitable for these wind farms where other off-shore uses will not be compromised. With the cooperation and scientific resources of the University of Rhode Island — the university has pooled an elite team of researchers — the CRMC will work during the first year to map the off-shore waters.

The concept for the Ocean SAMP was born through the realization that global warming is a reality and that Rhode Island is particularly susceptible to its affects. Global warming is perhaps the most critical issue of the 21st Century. It is already accelerating sea-level rise, leading to beach-erosion property losses and increasing Rhode Island’s vulnerability to hurricanes and floods. Climate change may hurt our food supply, public health and the economy. Rhode Island is committed to reducing its carbon footprint by using renewable energy resources — primarily offshore wind farms — to meet 15 percent of its energy needs.
The CRMC leadership decided that one way to address this issue was to provide room for renewable energy in the state’s long-term plan — and a special area management plan, or SAMP, was the best way to do it.

The CRMC has federal authority to develop and implement SAMPs through the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act, and has been developing SAMPs since 1983 when it adopted the Providence Harbor SAMP. Since then, the CRMC has adopted and implemented four more in the state, is finishing an update of the Providence Harbor — now called Metro Bay — SAMP and is also working on a SAMP for the west side of Aquidneck Island. SAMPs, by design, are ecosystem-based management strategies that are consistent with the council’s mandate to preserve and restore ecological systems. Through the process, the CRMC coordinates with local municipalities, as well as government agencies and community organizations, to prepare the SAMPs and implement the management strategies.

Working alongside the CRMC in the SAMP development effort is a constant fixture and invaluable resource — the University of Rhode Island and its Coastal Resources Center. The CRMC has called upon the extensive expertise of the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) and university for all of its SAMPs, and the Ocean SAMP effort magnifies those efforts. A highly regarded, world-renowned team of scientists is conducting studies on current and potential future uses of the off-shore waters for this project. Some of the university scientists are also conducting research and data collection aboard the research vessel Endeavor in October.

Development of a special area management plan in two years is an ambitious goal, but this is one of many things for which the CRMC has been recognized as a national leader. A draft is scheduled to be presented to the council for adoption by February, with a completed Ocean SAMP to be presented to the council for adopt by February 2010.

With five other SAMPs successfully under the agency’s belt, the Ocean SAMP would be the largest-scale plan to date. Despite venturing into uncharted waters with ocean zoning, the CRMC and URI are world-class leaders in this method of planning, and Rhode Islanders will benefit from it for generations.
- Michael M. Tikoian is chairman of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, of which Grover J. Fugate is executive director.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Pipe Dream

By Chip Young

CSO project results should even outstrip the hype

It is a bit hard to say that a $350 million, multi-year project known as “Rhode Island’s Big Dig” and the subject of recent media attention from everyone from national TV to high school newspapers may be understated, but that’s my belief about the Narragansett Bay Commission Combined Sewer Overflow Abatement Project; hitherto called the CSO project.

True, there’s nothing like a photo of a rock drill big enough to use on Maria Shriver’s choppers, sand hogs working in underground in lighted tunnels like something out of a gargantuan, futuristic Coal Miner’s Daughter movie set, and enough enormous pipes to rival the Large Hadron Collider to get people’s attention.  But in a couple of years, the focus is going to be off the might and majesty of the CSO, and zoomed down to the marked signs of health exhibited by the wee, wet beasties like clams and other marine life in Narragansett Bay, and this combined impact on the people who enjoy the state’s most important environmental and economic natural resource.

Veteran quahoggers I have frequent dealings with like Mike McGiveney and Jody King, the president and veep, respectively, of the R.I. Shellfishermen’s Association get about as excited as I have ever seen them when they talk about what the potential benefits of the CSO project will mean for them and their bull-raking colleagues.  They have been at the dirty end of the stick for years, when any rainfall over a half-inch has shut down portions of Upper Narragansett Bay due to the raw, untreated pollution (we don’t need crude descriptors here, I think you know what we’re talking about) discharged from the old CSO runoff system that can’t handle the excess overflow.  That reduces the available areas left for quahoggers to work, and increases the stress on the stock in those available areas.  And when big storms come along and the Bay is closed even further south, shellfishermen are forced to either head much further down the Bay (as the ka-ching of gas costs rings in their ears) or just stay home.

The CSO project tunnels and holding tanks will prevent untreated sewage from running straight into the bay, and contain it until the flow to the NBC wastewater plant is reduced.  The excess sewage can then be sent to the plant, where it can receive the necessary treatment to not have such harmful affect on the marine life in the Bay. And that impact won’t be felt just in the Field’s Point area in Providence, but throughout the metro region where people who enjoy the beaches in Warren, Bristol and Warwick also feel the impact of CSO overflows along with the quahoggers.

The results may be incremental at first, but as time goes on in upcoming years, expect to see fewer shellfishing and beach closures, an attendant rise in the overall health of Narragansett Bay, and a damn sight more pleasant environment for all those who live around it or play on it.  And this is just Phase I of the project.  Phases II and III will branch out along the Seekonk and Woonasquatucket Rivers, and then into Central Falls and Pawtucket.  In the end, NBC officials estimate that by full completion of the CSO project, the 2.2 billion gallons of sewage that currently enter the CSO system will be reduced by 98 percent.

Now, maybe I was wrong.  No one can call that an understatement.

The teeth of the main drill’s enormous cutting wheel can be seen below. Watch your fingers.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Dummy’s Guide to Good Investments: Open Space and Farmland

By Chip Young

Approve Rhode Island Bond Question #2

Let’s do a little street corner commerce.  Here’s the deal: You’ve got $2.50, you give it to me, and you get back $10 worth of nice property.  How’re ya doin’?  Right.  Now let’s up the ante.  You give me $2.5 million, and I give you back $10 million worth of beautiful and agriculturally useful property.  Now how’s that working out for you?

That is the kind of investment and payoff that Rhode Islanders can realize by passing Question 2 on this November’s ballot, the $2.5 million Open Space and Recreational Development Bond.  (Ignore the typically bureaucratic wording, what we are discussing is the conservation of primarily farmlands and other high priority open spaces.)

The bond money will generate three times the base amount in matching funds, providing a total of $10 million to protect Rhode Island communities’ special open spaces for eternity. (I admittedly have so many full disclosures to make on the side of this request it wouldn’t fit in this space, but common sense is common sense.)  Rhode Island’s voters have always realized what a solid economic investment environmental bonds are: an environmental bond has never failed to pass on a statewide or local ballot, being approved with an average of more than two-thirds support at the state level, with some local bonds for open space funding passing by 98 percent (West Greenwich) and 100 percent (Jamestown) in the past two years.  Think a politician would enjoy having a two-thirds majority, never mind a unanimous election?  That’s called a mandate.
I know times are tough, but you are never going to get a better bang for your buck—it is a winning investment for you and the kids of today and tomorrow. But if you don’t believe me, how about a bipartisan appeal below from two of our favorite former governors, Joe Garrahy and Linc Almond?

MAKING AN INVESTMENT ON SOLID GROUND
The 2008 Open Space and Recreational Development Bond
By J. Joseph Garrahy and Lincoln C. Almond

Who hasn’t marveled at Rhode Island’s sparkling coasts, rolling farmlands and centuries-old hand built walls?  Our state’s open space and farms exemplify the natural, historical and scenic qualities that make living here special.

No question but that this is a time of economic uncertainty.  Yet, this fall Rhode Islanders can make an investment that is literally on solid ground: a commitment to preserving the farms and open space lands that give the state its invaluable quality and character—irreplaceable, hard assets.

The $2.5 million Open Space and Recreational Development Bond on the ballot in November will help preserve our unique heritage.  The bond money will generate three times that amount in matching funds, providing a total of $10 million to protect our communities’ special open spaces for future generations.  Remaining natural areas and farmlands are disappearing across the state, and opportunities that are not seized upon will be lost forever.  The time to act is now. 

Open space and farmland enhance quality of life in Rhode Island.  They grow our food.  They protect our drinking water supplies and fisheries from pollution.  They are places where Rhode Islanders can hike, fish and play.

Did you know that farming is a $100 million industry in Rhode Island?  Our farms offer employment, create and boost related services, and improve the general business atmosphere.  Farms bring benefits to every community, urban, suburban or rural.  The food programs in 28 of Rhode Island’s school districts provide children with locally-grown food.  Farm stands and community gardens help working farmers, and bring fresh, nourishing produce to citizens statewide throughout the year, without using lots of fuel to transport goods across the country.

The Open Space bond funds—and the matching funds they attract—are also used to create and expand the parks, beaches, recreational facilities and management areas enjoyed by the public.  These are the places where we and our children unwind; they are the iconic or hidden spots that offer sustenance and shade, beauty, respite and recreation.

There’s an old expression about a financial deal that is so safe and smart that it is “as solid as the ground on which you are standing.”  That is the case when we invest in Rhode Island’s hardworking farmers and the lands they cultivate, and the open spaces that define what it is to be a Rhode Islander.  Every year that passes there is less farmland and open space left to conserve, and fewer chances to preserve and protect the benefits that accompany these acres. 

Make a solid investment in the future that will grow in value year by year, and vote to approve Question 2 for Open Space and Recreational Development Bond on Election Day.  You will be on very solid ground when you do.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Wind Energy Blows Into Rhode Island

By Chip Young

State’s ocean zoning will serve as a national model

First off, apologies for the play on words regarding wind energy in the headline, as the quota for those sorts of idiotic indulgences has been reached and breached.  It is evidently required by U.S. Internet Rule #3 governing blogs.

OK, let’s get serious.  Because Rhode Island’s entrance into the playing field of offshore renewable energy through a proposed wind farm is indeed very serious.  It is also very exciting.

For full disclosure, I am part of the team from the University of Rhode Island working on the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (O-SAMP), which will be zoning the ocean waters where the possibility of siting a wind farm exists, and evaluating those areas for their potential.  The areas being studied are delineated in the map above within the red lines, along with a breakout (yellow lines) of what are state waters, versus those under federal jurisdiction.  The O-SAMP work is under the direction of the Coastal Resources Management Council, being led by its executive director, Grover Fugate.  The team itself includes dozens of leading experts from the University of Rhode Island and its Graduate School of Oceanography, as well as members from Roger Williams University.  As the various stakeholder, science and legal advisory groups are formed, there will also be wide and deep public involvement in the process.

One of the most important things to know about the whole offshore wind energy initiative the state is involved in is the distinct separation—a firewall, if you will—between the science and research being conducted by the O-SAMP team, and the policy and financial side, which involves the Governor’s Office, the state Office of Energy Resources and the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.  “We have already had discussions with the Governor and his office, who are in agreement that this process has to be independent and scientifically-based,” said Fugate of the O-SAMP effort.

The provision of information and communication among all parties and the public will be a priority.  For current information and ongoing updates on the progress of the science and research work see the O-SAMP web site.  For further information on the O-SAMP, contact Monica Allard Cox at (401) 874-6015, or via e-mail at:oceansamp@gso.uri.edu. Please take the time to learn about and get involved in this very progressive effort, which has enormous ramifications for the future.

A developer has already been chosen, Deepwater Wind, a New Jersey firm.  One of the requirements of the O-SAMP process requires the developer to reimburse the state for the cost of the research and science work that will be undertaken to determine possible sites for a wind farm.

The eyes of the country will be on Rhode Island as the O-SAMP process plays out, as the state is already in the lead nationally in zoning its ocean waters, and the streamlined process that is in place with CRMC in the lead can make the initiative a more efficient—while being thoroughly equitable and accountable—process than those in other states that are taking on this alternative energy challenge.

Stay tuned.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Last Child in the Woods

By Chip Young

“Rhode Island… could become the leading state in the children and nature movement.“

On Saturday, September 27, at the Warwick campus of the Community College of Rhode Island, the acclaimed author, founder of the Child & Nature Network, and activist, Richard Louv, delivered a lecture based upon his latest book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.  The book has stimulated an international conversation about the future relationship between children and nature, and has helped spawn a movement that is now moving into federal and state legislatures, national parks and local schools. 

U.S. Senator Jack Reed had been set to do the intro for Louv, but for obvious reasons was in D.C.  But Reed is the author of the “No Child Left Inside Act,“ a new initiative designed to strengthen environmental education programs in America’s classrooms and reconnect more kids with nature, which runs hand in glove with Louv’s thinking and advocacy work.  The No Child Left Inside Act has picked up momentum and passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week by a wide margin of 293-109.

“Teaching children about the environment and giving them a hands-on opportunity to experience nature should be an important part of the curriculum in our schools,“ said Reed in a message from Washington.  “The strong vote in the House is a positive first step toward restoring environmental education in America’s classrooms.  I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to include NCLI as part of a broader elementary and secondary education bill.“

Louv serves as chairman of the Children & Nature Network, an organization helping to build the international movement to connect children with nature. He also serves as honorary co-chair of The National Forum on Children and Nature. Co-chaired by four state governors, the Forum, sponsored by the Conservation Fund, will fund programs around the country designed to get kids outside. 

“Perhaps because Rhode Island is the second most-densely populated state, Rhode Islanders have always promoted efforts to protect the natural areas that define their state through support of state and local bonds and creation of parks and preserves,” Louv observed. “The Ocean State boasts over 300 miles of coastline, and, thankfully, supports a number of growing efforts through conservation groups, schools and political leaders to get children out-of-doors to connect with the nature that they find in their communities. But like every state, Rhode Island can do much more—in fact, it could become the leading state in the children and nature movement.“

Some points Louv makes very well.  First, is that it has been shown that test scores go up with increased exposure to nature and the outdoors.  As does a child’s interest and excitement about nature and school in general, even if the outdoor exposure is in small doses.  And teachers who get their kids outside are less likely to burn out.  Take note, NEA.

Along those generational lines, there is often as much need for adults to haul their lazy rear ends somewhere further than from the front door to the car and then the car to the workplace or the store.  Like kids, some grown-ups and parents are a bit of afraid of what’s out there, and it is a not a comfortable place to be.  Can I sit here?  Is that poison ivy?  What if I get my feet wet, catch a cold and die?  C’mon, Daddy and Mommy.  You aren’t being asked to be Daniel Boone or Calamity Jane.  Just turn off the TV, grab little Junior and Sissy by the hand, walk them through the park, make up the names of plants and trees you don’t know (OK, maybe “Christmas tree tree” is not the true name of a fir tree, but it’ll do), and fake your own enjoyment.  You might even find you are having a good time in spite of yourself.

I thought one of the most telling bits of information in Louv’s 90-minute presentation and extended Q&A was the correlation between the rise in childhood obesity and the increase in organized sports for kids.  Having spent the days before Louv’s talk at a high school soccer team reunion with a bunch of other jaded, busted-up old jocks a lot of the discussion among was about kids and parents’ attitudes today, which the consensus was needs a lot of work. Too much regimentation and not enough being set loose to have fun.  The learning will come with the playing, so hold the uniforms and the red-faced parents on the sidelines.

I am of the mind that if you don’t have grass stains on your pants, a missing tooth or a scar you picked up from playing outside you shouldn’t be allowed into school.  All my friends, male and female, took a few knocks on the playground or doing something fun outdoors on their own.  I remember falling out of a tree the day before I attended my first day of first grade and tearing up my hand, so I made my entrance into public education with stitches in my palm and a red badge of courage, although I probably should have had an orange badge of stupidity as well. 

The presentation by Richard Louv was sponsored by a partnership of leading local environmental organizations that are dedicated to environmental advocacy and education: The Nature Conservancy; Audubon Society of R.I.; the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island; Norman Bird Sanctuary; R.I. Environmental Educational Association; Roger Williams Park Zoo; Save the Bay; and the Apeiron Society for Sustainable Living. 

All of the co-sponsors of Louv’s lecture are actively involved in education initiatives that bring children and nature closer together:

• The Nature Conservancy works to protect the wild places that provide the “natural classrooms” about which Richard Louv writes in Last Child in the Woods.
• Roger Williams Park Zoo is a living classroom whose exhibits and education programs serve children throughout the Southeastern New England region.
• The Audubon Society of Rhode Island has a wildlife refuge system, protecting nearly 9,500 acres of wildlife habitat, which provides students with the opportunity to discover first-hand wetlands, fields, forests, and streams.
• Save The Bay has been doing standards-based experiential education programming for over 20 years, using Rhode Island’s largest natural resource, Narragansett Bay, as its classroom.
• The Norman Bird Sanctuary has public education programs such the Neighborhood Naturalists After School Club and the Saturday Explorers Club that link to the spirit of Last Child in The Woods. 
• Apeiron’s outdoor programs help people of all ages discover and experience their connection to the world around them, choose courses of action that promote health, well being and the environment, and become leaders of sustainable living in their communities. 

For more information on each organization’s educational programs, please contact them directly.  NOW.  Our kids need it.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Are You High?  You Better Find Out

By Chip Young

New technology needed to examine sea level rise vulnerability

You might not be aware of it, but long-range thinkers at state and municipal agencies, and at businesses who are sharp enough to recognize what is coming in the future, are already planning for the effects of sea level rise and impacts of storm surges caused by global climate change.  This would probably exclude Alaska and the town of Wasilla, whose fearless leader, Sarah Palin, obviously has a much better handle on the issue than those pesky scientists.

One of the tools they are clamoring for to do this sort of planning and management as well as possible is LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).  Nathan Vinhateiro, a fellow at the Coastal Institute at the University of Rhode Island, works with the folks who are seeing the light, so to speak, and explains why LIDAR can give us a head start on the gradually increasing water levels in Rhode Island.

IT’S HIGH TIME FOR LIDAR
By Nathan Vinhateiro

Global climate change and its impacts have begun to take on a high profile in Rhode Island. The University of Rhode Island’s prestigious Honors Colloquium is kicking off a three-month series of public programs titled “People and Planet: Global Environmental Change,” and just last month Senator Sheldon Whitehouse chaired a field briefing of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography to examine the implications of climate change to Narragansett Bay.

At the hearing, Senator Whitehouse heard a consistent and unanimous message from several expert witnesses: the evidence for human-induced global warming is unequivocal. Warmer surface temperatures are leading to wide-scale systematic changes to the planet, with tremendous consequences for human health and well being. Coastal communities, including those that share the state’s 420 miles of shoreline, are on the front line of this battle as they confront the most clear and present danger: a warmer atmosphere is causing the world’s ice to melt and sea level to rise.

Rising sea level has the potential to erode beaches, drown wetlands and barrier islands, intensify flooding from hurricanes and nor’easters, threaten coastal infrastructure and drinking water, and ultimately displace populations. What’s particularly alarming is that observations of sea level rise have been consistently higher than recent projections—the data seem to be lining up with worst-case scenarios for future inundation.
 
The time for debate about human-induced warming is over. Sea level is rising and it is now time for the dialogue to shift to adaptation.

If the state is to meet this challenge successfully, scientists agree, accurate and high-resolution elevation measurements are needed to understanding the consequences of sea level rise and storm surge. Accurate elevations and can be easily acquired using a state of the art mapping technology known as LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).

LIDAR is a technology that uses properties of scattered light from a laser beam to determine the distance to an object or surface. Much in the way that SONAR uses acoustic waves to measure distance to objects underwater, LIDAR instruments, when mounted on aircraft, can produce very accurate measurements of the distance to the earth’s surface over large areas. LIDAR elevation points are typically accurate to six inches, a vast improvement over existing data. This information is fairly simple to obtain during the winter and early spring when deciduous trees have dropped their leaves.

To understand and communicate true risk and vulnerability from future hazards LIDAR elevation data are needed on a statewide level, not only for scientists, but for planners and emergency management officials as well.

At the Senate hearing, Rhode Island’s coastal experts repeatedly stressed that the current lack of accurate elevation information makes it impossible to understand and mitigate the impacts of sea level rise. Presently, the best statewide elevation data are built from the same contour maps that have been around for decades. In fact, the difference between elevations represented on these maps and actual heights “on the ground” can vary by eight feet or more. This presents problems when trying to map areas that will be inundated by a five-foot rise in sea level, or a 15-foot storm surge from a hurricane that makes landfall.

For medical professionals, diagnosis of disease has moved ahead light years as CAT scans and MRI instruments have replaced or augmented X-rays to allow more precise visualization of the human body. In the same way, new mapping technologies offer far more realistic and timely information for coastal managers. The cost and time required to acquire LIDAR elevations depends on the ultimate accuracy desired, but when compared to the economic and environmental value of our state’s coastal resources, the price tag is nominal. Moreover, the investment in LIDAR could save millions of dollars in future siting of coastal infrastructure.

Of course there are factors other than elevation that determine how susceptible coastal areas in Rhode Island will be to inundation. The shape of the coastline, the amount of sand being delivered by rivers and streams, tidal range, wave height, and coastal protection structures like breakwaters all play a role in the actual impacts of accelerated sea level rise. However, the detailed analyses required to consider these dimensions would be futile without reliable elevations. All of the speakers at the Senate briefing were clear—now is the time to get to work on replacing our inaccurate elevation information and identifying areas at risk. We simply cannot afford to waste time debating that which is unequivocal: climate change is our present and future.

To open the hearing, Senator Whitehouse called global warming “the most serious threat our environment faces,” and stressed the need for action now. The panel’s response was of one voice—climate change mitigation starts with reliable information, and statewide LIDAR is the first step. Given the scope of human, environmental, and economic impacts to our state, the cost of addressing this problem pales in comparison to the cost of ignoring it.

- Nathan Vinhateiro is a fellow of the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Institute.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Global Climate Change:  It’s He-eeere!

By Chip Young

Rhode Island focuses on GCC in two major events

The message that is being sent in Rhode Island about climate change is to the point:  If you don’t want to believe in it globally, believe in it locally.  Because it is already right here.

Two current local events have and will help point out the seriousness of the issue to Rhode Islanders.

On August 21, our own U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse presided over an official briefing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on “Global Warming’s Impacts on Narragansett Bay” at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.  The big statement from the presenters?  “Unequivocal.” That one word projected on a huge, single slide by GSO associate dean and international climate change expert, Kate Moran. As in the opinion of the vast majority of world’s scientific community is unequivocal that global climate change exists and that humans are the cause of global warming.

Sticking with the brevity idea, here’s a good deal of what came out of the presentations and back-and-forth prompted by questions from Sheldon Whitehouse, which should have the impact of two-by-four to the forehead.  Remember these little items when the yahoos begin blathering, “There’s your global warming for you!” if we start experiencing an extremely cold winter this year, oblivious to the fact that a major feature of global climate is amplified swings in weather conditions—like, say, a nice summer and then extra cold winter.

Just the facts, ma’am.  Narragansett Bay’s average temperature has increased two degrees in the last 30 years.  In ecological terms, that is a huge jump.  The Bay is now becoming like a Mid-Atlantic estuary, along the lines of Chesapeake Bay or those in North Carolina.  Warmer temperatures make the possibility of lower oxygen levels in the water more likely—think suffocating fish and large fish kills.  Fisheries populations are adapting and changing, possibly for better, possibly for worse, but both economically and ecologically.  Predatory jellyfish that consume fish larvae before they can grow up are in the Bay earlier and longer.  Whoops.

How about sea level rise? It is already creeping up on us, no pun intended. Take a look at the graphic at the top of this piece, a vision of Providence in 2100.  Everything now under that layer of blue is underwater.  Check out the mid-upper left, where the State House is.  Hey, we’ll be able to have “Waterfire” on the first floor of the Providence Place Mall!  How convenient.  Plus, State House workers will have their own little riverside beach to relax on during lunch break.  Sweet.

But let’s up the ante on what you are seeing.  Scientists are often portrayed as hysterical Chicken Littles, running around screaming horror and destruction to whoever will listen.  But the predictions that scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading body on GCC, made about this frightening factor in 2000 are now considered extremely conservative based on what we are actually seeing occur via satellite observations.  And that doesn’t even take into account the startling new impact of increasing loss of ice sheets in Greenland or glaciers in the Antarctic, which aren’t even included in the already threatening equation.  For naysayers on global warming, it is kind of like one of them flipping the bird to an average-looking guy in a traffic incident, and finding out he is an Ultimate Fighting champion.

Behind the scenes, sea level rise as the result of global warming is being taken very seriously by state and municipal planners and the business community.  Want to build a waterfront restaurant in Newport?  Better put it on Spring Street, which runs parallel to Thames Street up the hill from Newport Harbor, because that’s where the water will be heading by 2100.  (See the graphic below.)  Need upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant at Field’s Point in Providence?  You might not want to invest millions of dollars in a sewage facility that figures to be underwater.  That’s right, “Coming soon to your neighborhood…”  And if you have been waiting to retire and buy that little cottage on the salt pond in Misquamicut?  What salt pond?  Those barrier beaches that form them will be where the waves are breaking over the sandbars out there in a few decades.  Surf’s up, gang.

One of Senator Whitehouse’s telling points during his committee briefing was in response to what business and industry always refer to as the prohibitive cost of doing what is needed to reduce the human impacts that create global warming.  He observed, “It would be nice to put a price tag on what happens if we do nothing.”  Get out your calculators and raise the alarm, ladies and gents.  If you don’t, we’ll have to pay a very wet piper.

GET SMART!

If you want to learn lots and lots more about global warming and climate change, the information is coming to you this fall in a very interesting and understandable manner via the University’s Rhode Island’s 2008 Honors Colloquium, “People and Planet—Global Environmental Change.”  The series of free, weekly events featuring international experts and URI faculty members will run from September 9 to December 9.  Most events will take place on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Chafee Social Science Center on the Kingston campus.

“It won’t be an indictment of how we got to where we are,” says URI professor, occasional Gamm Theater director, and Little Rhody all around creative ace Judith Swift, one of the Colloquium’s coordinators.  “Instead, we will look to the future on these issues—what do we know, what do we need to know, what are we going to do to address it, and what are the consequences of those choices.”

This is going to be a treat, as not only will this will venture into science as we knew it when Mr. Wizard ruled the educational arena, there will be a touch of John Waters meets Al Gore thrown in.  Or haven’t you ever seen a cabaret act based upon coastal ecological functions?  Other entertaining ways to learn more about problems staring us right in the grill are URI faculty members who will use documentary film clips to unwrap the GCC arguments in a discussion entitled “The Great Global Warming Hoax?”, and examining excerpts from Hollywood movies to interpret climate change issues through the respective lenses of a scientist and a cinema buff.

People and Planet —Global Environmental Change, kicks off on September 9 with the renowned Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change.  For more info on all aspects of what should be a great ongoing event, go to URI Honors Colloquium, or contact the URI Honors Center at (401) 874-2381.

Be there or be square.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Newport’s Seaside Problems

By Chip Young

More beach closings and a “red tide” that isn’t

Newport, Rhode Island’s City by the Sea, has had a rough ride recently when it comes to problems regarding the beaches and waterfront that are its calling cards.

A lawsuit by filed on behalf of local citizens by two environmental organizations has pointed out the long—and currently losing—fight the city has fought against pollution of its beaches, Newport Harbor, and, by extension, a Middletown beach.  Local officials claim they are doing everything they can to halt the closing of tourist and local attractions like Easton’s Beach, commonly known as First Beach, and the adjacent Atlantic Beach Club Beach; and to improve the water quality of Newport Harbor, which continues to suffer from stormwater overflow problems.  The kicker is the red seaweed that is rampant throughout the waves and on the shore at Easton’s and Atlantic Beach Club beaches, about as appealing to swimmers as jumping into a mud puddle.  The algae are in themselves not harmful to bathers, but pollution, like politics, is all about perception.

Newport has been fighting water quality issues for decades.  It is like having a bad back.  Always present, always painful. Back in 1985, I stood with Michael Keating, president of Save the Bay at the time, on the steps of City Hall during a press conference, as he displayed for the media a one-gallon pickle jar full of water we had just retrieved from Newport Harbor at Long Wharf.  You didn’t have to be a genius to see what was floating in the water. “Revolting” would be an understatement. And yet this is the water that the winning skipper of the America’s Cup, then one of Newport’s crown jewels as a worldwide attention-getter, would be thrown into after the competition.  “I went to Newport and all I got was this lousy Cup and an ear infection.”

The reason for the current beach closings was the same as the problem back in 1985: stormwater runoff and sewer overflows, and stressed treatment capabilities at its wastewater treatment plant.  In 1986, Newport debuted its new, improved treatment facility to great fanfare.  This was to be the solution to all the sewage problems for years to come.  Those years came too quickly, as did development.  The treatment plant, which serves both Newport and Middletown, is now at full capacity, overburdened by the demands of increased growth.  That same expansion continues to contribute to the polluted stormwater that plagues the harbor and beaches, as more and more people and sidewalks and parking lots spew toxins into the runoff.

Environment Rhode Island and the Boston-based National Environment Law Foundation, which are providing the backing and legal assistance to the local residents who brought the lawsuit against Newport for ongoing federal Clean Water Act violations, say all they are looking for is a timetable to clean up these problems.  They aren’t looking for fines that would further punish a municipality in the midst of a financial crunch.  They just want a timetable and real action. But the town leadership is still crying poor, and from personal observations over the years, their attempts at mitigating the longstanding problems have been less than wholehearted or well-informed.

I have swum at First Beach for years, and have on occasion this year, the last time being two weeks ago.  I have a rough idea of how quickly the pollution will flush after a rain, and after a couple of tide changes and dirty weather, I am not too concerned.  I’m more concerned about catching a few good waves.  But I am not your average water dog.  There were other people in the water when I took the plunge, but hardly the number you would expect from a beach of that size during the wonderful weather we have been having, and the way the body-surfable waves were rolling in.  I imagine some were indeed kept out by the media-hyped stories about the pollution there.  And after rains the pollution is more than evident—you don’t need to be a scientist, just let your nose be the judge. 

I am certain many wannabe swimmers and boogie boarders stayed on the hot sand because of the perceived filth of the seemingly endless infestation and constant presence of the seaweed/algae known to scientists as spermothamnion repens, that chokes the water reddish-brown.  Many people mistakenly call it “red tide,” but it isn’t, nor is it harmful to humans.  The real red tide, which Little Rhody is thankfully free from, is similarly red-colored algae which contain toxins. These affect shellfish, which retain them when they filter feed, and they themselves are then consumed by hungry seafood lovers.  The resulting gastrointestinal reaction is enough to make you display the protective sign of the cross with your fingers in the direction of any red-tinted seaweed in the future.  Not helpful in Newport’s scenario.

Scientists conjecture that the local algae is breaking free from a reef or other hard surface where they have attached themselves not far off shore.  Heavy wave action or something hitting or gnawing them can free pieces from their solid foundation, and send them into the water column.  There, being ultralight and somewhat buoyant, and churned by the waves, they rise to the top, photosynthesize and grow in the sunlight, and wash ashore on the beach.  This onslaught is actually millions of small, two to three-inch pieces of algae, but the visual effect is that of an avalanche of slimy, clinging plantlike invaders that wind up in your mouth after you get spilled by a wave, or in crevices of your swimsuit or body that challenge your sense of invasion, hygiene and decency.

I have seen the visceral reaction of tourists as they stroll down along Memorial Boulevard past Cliffwalk and First Beach when they encounter the all-encompassing seaweed, which can only be exacerbated by the stories they hear about pollution.  It doesn’t matter if the connections they make aren’t scientifically valid.  They are very real to the people who tend to believe their lying eyes.

Newport’s leaders have a serious problem on their hands, no matter how they decide to resolve it.  One just hopes with all the value-added these beautiful natural resources provide on top of all the cultural, historic and artistic draws the City by the Sea possesses—and what they threaten to detract from those assets by being a visual and olfactory blot on the personal observation ledger—that they will find a will and a way to solve these ongoing problems quickly.  There isn’t much of an alternative, as the recent lawsuits have started the time clock ticking.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Narragansett Bay Isn’t What It Used To Be

By Chip Young

What it is like five years after the 2003 Greenwich Bay fish kill

August 20th will mark the fifth anniversary of the calamitous Greenwich Bay fish kill.  This catastrophic ecological event left the shores of beaches and coves surrounding Greenwich Bay covered in dead fish and shellfish, all primarily suffocated by the lack of oxygen in the local waters.

The fish kill was the result of a “perfect storm” of factors, which scientists were not oblivious to, but were in no position to do anything to halt.  In fact, researchers from the Bay Window Monitoring Program, of which I am a member, predicted its occurrence right down to the very day.  Their prescience was based on the data they were collecting, which showed the growing lack of dissolved oxygen, warmer temperatures and the coming neap tide, which is when there is the least tidal fluctuation, which minimizes the mixing of the saltwater of Narragansett Bay with freshwater from rain, and the natural river and stream flows.

The public outcry over the visual and visceral shock of seeing that much marine life washing up dead led to an immediate response from state government.  A Governor’s Narragansett Bay and Watershed Planning Commission was formed to look into the matter and take action, with hundreds of local experts involved from government, private and public sectors.  Attacks were launched on the nutrient loadings into Narragansett Bay from wastewater treatment plants and stormwater runoff.  These nutrients, from human sources and the use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers, were seen by many as an oxygen-depleting powder keg, the fuse of which was lit by the accumulated factors of weather, temperatures and other small but important variables.

There has been progress in trying to assure that we don’t experience another fish kill of that magnitude.  (Some fish kills occur naturally every summer, and should’t be a cause of panic.)  But Bay Window researchers and scientists are now keeping a close eye on the entire Bay as the warm weather and rains of August approach, especially during the neap tides scheduled for August 8 and 23.  You’ll be able to read more about what is happening underneath the waves as regards the possibility of another fish kill in this space we near those dates.  For now, below is a take on how Narragansett Bay has been gradually changing through the years, and what that evolution means to Rhode Islanders, written by my highly respected Bay Window colleagues Mark Gibson and Candace Oviatt.  These two scientists have been studying the Bay for years, know it inside out, and what they see and say is well worth your while.

NARRAGANSETT BAY: CH-CH-CHANGES
By Mark Gibson and Candace Oviatt

In late June, Department of Environmental Management scientists from the Bay Window monitoring partnership observed through aerial flyovers and purse seine sampling an estimated 24 million menhaden with an average weight of one pound apiece, in Narragansett Bay. The fish were predominantly located in the Upper Bay and Providence River.

That is a lot of fish, an amount not seen since the 1970s.

The massive influx of this keystone species that lures fishermen and predatory fish such as striped bass and bluefish is nearly double that of the noteworthy 2007 bumper crop of menhaden that attracted media and public attention.  But there are other major changes going on in Narragansett Bay that are not as visible as churning schools of fish on the surface.

Narragansett Bay itself has noticeably warmed in the recent past.  Yes, that is global climate change manifesting itself right here in our backyard. The Bay is gradually taking on the characteristics of a mid-Atlantic estuary such as what you would experience in Maryland and the Carolinas.  Over the past 30 years, the average mean temperature of the Bay has gone up two degrees Fahrenheit; the average mean winter temperature has increased four degrees.  For temperature-sensitive marine creatures, that is a huge change.

Due in part to the warming of the Bay, traditional natural cycles of Bay organisms are either taking place earlier, or not at all.  The system has changed.  The winter/spring “bloom” of plankton, which used to be the starting point for a cascade of ecological processes up the food chain, has become a fragment of itself.

It all begins with the plankton. Phytoplankton, the microscopic plant life in the Bay, once thrived in enormous amounts in February and March, during that winter/spring bloom. Once, the small plants would bloom extensively and virtually free from zooplankton predators (think small, shrimp-like creatures), and sink naturally to the bottom. This occurred because the zooplankton were inactive in the cold winter water and not able to feed on the abundant phytoplankton. The phytoplankton sinking to the floor of the Bay would become welcome meals for bottom mud dwellers such worms and shellfish.  Now, with warmer winter water in the Bay, the zooplankton do not go dormant. They remain active in their newly warmer surroundings, and graze the phytoplankton well in advance, limiting their blooming in the traditional way of the Bay.

In addition, the tiny, clear, barrel-shaped jellyfish you see throughout the Bay, known as “ctenophores” (TEEN-oh-phores), have also benefited from the balmier temperatures.  They are arriving in the Bay early than usual, in June rather than September, where they feed on the small marine life (for example, small fish larvae).  Some scientists believe that the changes that we are seeing in the kinds of fish occurring in these waters are related to this jellyfish predation on fish larvae. Yet more changes for Narragansett Bay.

The rise in water temperature is causing major changes in the organisms that live in the Bay and how the whole ecosystem works.  It is also switching the balance of power in fisheries from species that live on the bottom like flounders and hakes, to those that live in the water column such as butterfish and scup.  That already has measurable economic impacts locally; as winter flounder are worth up $2.00 per pound to commercial fishermen, while menhaden and scup only yield $0.10 to $0.75 per pound.

This shift in types of fishes over the past 30 years of warming waters is interesting because the total biomass of fish has remained about the same. That biomass just consists of different species. Little known year-round resident bottom fish such as hogchokers and oyster toadfish are declining, as they are replaced on a much more seasonal basis by visitors such as stripers and summer flounder.  Warm water may be the primary cause, think Bay Window researchers, but they are also concerned that a lack of oxygen along the bottom of the Bay—a condition called “hypoxia,” which was the main factor in the notorious 2003 Greenwich Bay fish kill—may also play a significant role.

Other factors are contributing to changes in the Bay as well. The water quality is getting better as we reduce pollutants from wastewater treatment facilities and we eliminate old cesspools.  Shell disease—an emerging new disease—is affecting the iconic animal of Narragansett Bay, the lobster.  Newly arrived invasive species of crabs and other organisms are out-competing our native Bay creatures for existence.  At the same time, the overall productivity of Narragansett Bay seems steady. 

Global climate change may be here to stay and Narragansett Bay is changing. How? That is what Bay Window scientists are focusing on; examining the information they accumulate day in and day out.  We need to find those answers because the health of this incredible, dynamic system is critical to the future economic and environmental well being of each and every one of us.

-  Mark Gibson, deputy chief of Fish and Wildlife for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, and Candace Oviatt, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, are both members of the Bay Window Monitoring Program Steering Committee.