One goal is to eliminate massive fish kills and beach closures.

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 2, 2004

BY EDWARD ORTIZ
Journal Environment Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Fledgling steps in what is sure to be a lengthy journey were taken yesterday by Governor Carcieri's Narragansett Bay and Watershed Planning Commission during its second public meeting.

The 36-member commission met with a wide range of representatives from environmental groups, academia, and the public sector to discuss their recommendations to improve Narragansett Bay and avoid the fish kills and beach closures that have plagued it.

The recommendations cast a wide net over issues facing the Bay, including nutrient pollution, fisheries and aquaculture, financing, and public access to parks, beaches and islands.

The goals are likely to prove costly and difficult to enforce -- such as requiring mandatory sewer connections along Greenwich Bay and other municipalities, and upgrading wastewater-treatment facilities.

The meeting comes on the heels of a 22-page report authored by a joint commission of the Senate Oversight, and Environment and Agriculture committees that urged a holistic approach toward dealing with the Bay's pollution problems. A House commission report that seeks to establish boundaries of governance and oversight in Bay issues is due out later this month.

The governor's commission, chaired by former Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy, first met in December. Ten subcommittees were formed to study specific issues.

Yesterday's meeting laid bare the fact that the commission has some large hurdles to overcome, especially turning the many recommendations of the 10 panels into a cohesive report. That report is expected to be ready for the legislature by next month and is substantially larger than the 22-page document delivered by the Senate.

The existence of three commissions -- the Senate's, the House's and the governor's -- responding to last August's fish kill in Greenwich bay has been criticized by some who say it will create a huge overlap of effort.

Former Department of Environmental Management director Jan Reitsma was among the many who attended yesterday's meeting. He cautioned the commission not to ignore the work that has already been done by the Senate.

"You should look at the reports from the Senate and the House," said Reitsma. "There should be some discussion of those reports and what they suggest."

One of the most ambitious goals that the governor's commission has set for itself is the opening of beaches and shellfishing areas. The commission's nutrient and bacteria pollution panel recommends reopening 25 percent of areas now closed to swimming by 2010, while reducing the areas closed to shellfishing by 50 percent.

Reitsma questioned the feasibility of the timelines included in the nutrient and bacteria pollution panel's report.

Panel chairman Don Pryor sounded tentative.

"Some goals are not likely to be met", Pryor said. However, Pryor suggested that many measures could be done quicker than the goals set in the report.

The commission recommends that 100 acres of coastal wetlands and 400 acres of fish habitat, plus 100 acres of eel grass be restored by 2008. It suggests that the DEM and the Coastal Resources Management Council work closer together on habitat restoration.

Access to beaches, islands and parks is a crucial part of Carcieri's commission. Carcieri has said that he believes the state is not doing a good job of making its 2,300 acres of islands and its many beaches available to its citizens.

The commission's public access panel said that a lack of public transportation to public parks and beaches was a glaring shortcoming that needed to be addressed. The panel also recommended reestablishing an island park system and creating a shuttle bus system within state parks, as well as developing a comprehensive map that would display all of RIPTA's routes and proximity locations for fishing, boat ramps, and ferry service.

The thorny issue of public beach access was discussed with panel chairman James Capaldi, director of the state's Department of Transportation. Capaldi said he would look into the possibility of getting DOT enhancement funds to improve public access to prime fishing locations.

The commission's finance panel is charged with finding funds for the many recommendations that the commission offered. Finance panel chair Michael Tikoian said that many financing opportunities have been missed because the state has not been astute at obtaining federal matching funds for Narragansett Bay.

Bringing back the use of restricted accounts was also offered as a financing tool.

Tikoian said that funds reaped from boater registrations and taxes on boat gasoline could be restricted and assigned to programs related to Narragansett Bay. Those funds now go into a general state fund, he said.

The public is invited to comment on the any of the recommendations or any of the information posted at the commission's Web site at: www.ci.uri.edu/govcom

Edward Ortiz has a fellowship with the Metcalf Institute for marine and environmental reporting. He can be reached at eortiz [at] projo.com