Digital Extra

By STEPHEN HEFFNER
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

In fact, the many different foreign accents that were heard in the chambers that morning belonged to some two dozen coastal management professionals from around the world who had gathered to offer a panel of local and state officials their observations on the condition and future of South County's coastal ponds.

The group hailed from 15 countries, including the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Malaysia, Mexico, Kenya, Brazil, Tanzania, Mexico, Indonesia, Germany, Spain, Russia, Belize, Thailand, and the United States.

What they had in common was that they were all enrolled in a month-long seminar called the Summer Institute in Coastal Management, sponsored by the University's of Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Center.

After spending the first two weeks of the seminar studying coastal management issues facing Ecuador and Sri Lanka, the group's third week was devoted to studying and formulating a report on the local coastal ponds and beaches.

Most of their observations were hardly news to those familiar with the many problems and pressures the coastal areas of South County face.

They noted, for example, that salt ponds are threatened by pollution from septic systems, stormwater runoff from roads that could contain petroleum residues, and innumerable sources that bring, among other things, streams of excess fertilizer from suburban lawns.

The group also told the panel that the beaches are slowly eroding, that the ponds face silting problems, and that problems develop when diverse groups of people with differing goals compete for the limited resources of the ponds.

They stressed the need for a master plan for area, for coordination among regulatory agencies, and for public participation.

One of the group's unique suggestions was that a lot might be accomplished by promoting, rather than merely enduring, the formation of volunteer citizens groups. Once formed, these groups should be encouraged in their efforts by government agencies, who would not only provide assistance and guidance, but also would regularly recognize and reward the efforts of the volunteers.

The panel also liked a suggestion for more "field-based decision-making" -- which means that bureaucrats making regulatory decisions on the coastal zones should get out of their offices more and into the field to monitor firsthand what is actually going on.

Clarkson Collins, community development director in Narragansett, praised the suggestion, noting that he spends most of his work in his office, and that getting out more would allow him "to see the effects of the decisions I make."

One discussion that is not often heard in these parts concerned the availability of affordable housing near the ponds and the beaches.

Indeed, the idea of finding affordable housing with a water view in South County is as unlikely as finding the Scarborough Beach parking lot empty on a hot Saturday afternoon in August.

Nevertheless, Haji Machano Ali of Tanzania reported that his group felt that there was not enough affordable housing in the area, and that development pressures and high taxes on beachfront property was making it difficult for low-income people to live in the vicinty of the salt ponds.

Donatus Marut of Indonesia reported the group's finding that municipalities should consider reducing taxes on low-income people living around the ponds, and that a "modest" annual tax on tourism might be levied to establish a "revolving fund" that could be used to help establish and maintain affordable housing.

Despite finding problems in the South County coastal zone, the group also reached a consensus that local management of those problems is, in general, more advanced and well-organized than it is in many of the home countries of the group members themselves.