Narragansett Bay Commission, RIDEM Announce Consent Agreement on CSO
GoLocalProv News Team
Narragansett Bay Commission, RIDEM Announce Consent Agreement on CSO
“This agreement is another giant step forward in our decades-long effort to clean up our rivers and Narragansett Bay. By addressing the weaknesses in our antiquated infrastructure, we continue reducing the sewage and other pollutants that wash into our waters during storm events. Rhode Islanders deserve to enjoy all the benefits of a clean Bay,” said DEM Director Janet Coit.
The agreement addresses the protections against water pollution that the NBC currently meets and needs to address in its Rhode Island Pollution Discharge Elimination System. The project is expected to take a decade to construct and will have a price tag in the billions.
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One of the key initiatives included in the CA is Phase III of the NBC’s Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) project, the centerpiece of which is a deep rock tunnel in Pawtucket and Central Falls to capture storm-related sewage overflows and transport those flows to the NBC’s Bucklin Point Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) in East Providence for full treatment.
Phases I and II of the NBC’s CSO project went on-line in 2008 and 2014, respectively, and have captured and treated over 10 billion gallons of storm-related sewage at the NBC’s Field’s Point WWTF in Providence.
As a result of the success of CSO Phases I and II, DEM revised shellfishing closure rules in 2017, removing the “Conditional” status from Area B, an area north of Providence Point and south of Rocky Point that had restricted harvesting based on rainfall for 70 years, and significantly relaxed the rainfall-related closure criteria in Conditional Area A, a highly productive shellfishing area north of Rocky Point and south of Conimicut Point.
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