R.I. Development Needs to be Low Impact

By KEVIN PROFT/ecoRI News staff

LID techniques result in less stormwater and manage any that is created sustainably. Here, the narrow road reduces impervious surfaces, the lack of curbs and gutters allow water to infiltrate the ground close to its source and the dense vegetation on the property helps absorb rainwater. (Photos courtesy of DEM)Rhode Island is experiencing more rain and more storms, and the state’s current infrastructure doesn’t manage this excess water very well.

The Ocean State’s abundance of impervious surfaces, such as roads, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, roofs and compacted soil in residential lawns stop rainwater from being filtered by the ground in a natural way. Worse, curb and gutter systems along the sides of roads funnel all this stormwater runoff into drains, which then pipe the water en mass directly into local streams, wetlands and Narragansett Bay.

While rainwater making its way into a stream just down the road doesn’t sound detrimental to the environment, it is, according to Scott Millar, the state Department of Environmental Management’s (DEM) watershed initiative leader. The problem is that by the time the water reaches the stream, it has collected a wave of pollution — oil from streets and driveways, fertilizers from lawns and pesticides from gardens. This toxic concoction pollutes the local ecosystem, as well as the entire network of streams and rivers downstream from the stormwater’s point of entry. All of it eventually flows into Narragansett Bay.

Additionally, streams that have stormwater piped into them become overtaxed with more water than they are able to manage naturally, which causes erosion and degradation, Millar said.

“Species diversity (in streams and wetlands) rapidly declines when you increase imperious cover,” he said.

Conventional development results in high levels of surface runoff. Here, compacted soil and fertilized lawns create runoff high in pollutants, and the lack of native vegetation stops water from being absorbed at its source. Curbs funnel stormwater into drains and pipes that eventually discharge the unfiltered water directly into local waterways.To help address this problem, the DEM and the Narragansett Bay Research Reserve routinely hold workshops geared toward landscape architects, city/town planners, civil and environmental engineers, and municipal decision makers. During these workshops, attendees learn about low-impact design (LID) techniques and the importance of incorporating them into planning across Rhode Island.

The goal of LID is to better manage stormwater runoff. Rhode Island’s brand of LID (pdf) outlines three main goals when developing a parcel of land. First, it suggests avoiding impacts to natural features and predevelopment hydrology. Basically, it asks developers to leave as much of the natural landscape in tact as possible, and to avoid developing or altering wetlands completely.

Second, the state LID suggests reducing runoff volume and increasing groundwater recharge. This means limiting impervious surfaces wherever possible, and avoiding sprawling fertilized lawns, and instead working with native vegetation. Research shows a forest can absorb an inch of rainwater before experiencing any runoff; the same can’t be said for a parking lot.

“Parking lots produces sixteen times more runoff than forests during storms with two inches of rainfall,” Millar said.

While the first two goals of the state LID encourage preventing stormwater runoff from even happening, the third goal suggests managing unavoidable impacts at their source. This means allowing stormwater runoff to be reintroduced into the environment as close as possible to where it lands. The ways of accomplishing this are many and varied.

Engineering roadside drainage systems that allow runoff to infiltrate the ground right next to the road instead of building gutters and drains is an obvious one. Reducing the size of parking spaces, and in turn the overall size of parking lots is another. LID also suggests making less-populated roads narrower, and planting vegetation in the middle of cul-de-sacs instead of paving them entirely.

Almost all of the methods encouraged by LID have economic benefits in addition to their environmental benefits, according to Millar. Generally, LID techniques reduce the amount of roads that need to be built, and decrease the cost of maintaining the roads that are built by making them narrower. LID techniques also help prevent floods and the associated costs with handling their aftermath.

One thing is certain, Millar said, “if we do not protect Rhode Island’s small streams and wetlands, we will have no chance to protect the state’s big rivers or Narragansett Bay.”

Conservation Development Builds R.I. Character

By KEVIN PROFT/ecoRI News staff

Scott Millar explains the benefits of conservation development. (Kevin Proft/ecoRI News)PROVIDENCE — The Ocean State still teems with wetlands, historic farmsteads, scenic views and pristine forests. Unfortunately, if your community is still working within the confines of an outdated and conventional land development plan, you can say goodbye to these features that give Rhode Island its character.

In many Rhode Island communities, current comprehensive plans hinder forward-thinking development, according to officials. Minimum lot size requirements often result in zoning practices that create 5-acre pieces of property, they say. Common building-to-street setback requirements cause backyards to shrink and encourage property owners to extend their lots beyond their legal boundaries and into protected forests and wetlands.

Regulations like these that discourage compact development result in sprawling, grid-like residential areas that encroach on environmental features and culturally important sites. They also eliminate the traditional character of close-knit neighborhood communities by moving neighbors further away from each other.

Scott Millar, who spoke at the Nov. 30 Conservation Development Workshop put on by the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the Narragansett Bay Research Reserve, said things don’t have to remain this way. Millar, who heads the DEM’s watershed initiative and has more than 20 years of experience in environmental management, policy and planning, is a champion of conservation development techniques — their use growing since the 1980s when poor planning and zoning were the norm.

“I was a biologist by education, but got into planning because I realized that there had to be a better way to develop land than the process we were using at the time,” Millar said.

The most important principle of conservation development is that at least 50 percent of any given parcel remains undeveloped in perpetuity at no cost to the city or town. The community also is allowed to guide growth to the most appropriate areas within a parcel of land to minimize negative impacts to the environment and to preserve community character.

Development is going to happen, so communities need to advocate for it in a better way, Millar said.

Millar recognizes that conservation development has to be “win-win” if it’s going to gain traction with municipal decision-makers and developers. Studies have shown that conservation development practices save communities money by reducing the amount of land they have to buy to ensure preservation. Additionally, such development drastically cuts down on the amount of infrastructure required to develop a parcel of land; this means government funds are saved as a result of reduced service costs associated with building and maintaining roads, sidewalks and utilities.

From a developer’s point of view, conservation planning results in a faster review process for projects by eliminating sensitive areas as options for development early in the planning process. It also results in higher value and marketability of a site when it comes time to sell.

When considering real estate value, location is the driver. Homes in nice neighborhoods with natural, recreational and cultural amenities nearby will generally be more valuable than their peers in conventionally developed neighborhoods.

The environmental and social advantages of conservation planning are obvious. Wildlife, wetlands and their vegetative buffers can be preserved, while less impervious surfaces resulting from fewer miles of road and driveway mean less polluted runoff. Historical and cultural features such as farmsteads can be protected, while aesthetic features and scenic views can be taken into account during the planning process.

Additionally, a sense of community will be promoted by walk-able and bike-able neighborhoods that include recreational outlets and gathering areas for residents.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to the implementation of conservation development is that it has to yield the same building density and profits that could be achieved by using conventional methods. Unfortunately, until comprehensive town plans and zoning laws are changed to allow for smaller lot sizes and higher-density building practices, this can’t be achieved in many situations. As a result, cookie-cutter neighborhoods with little regard for the character of the landscape are still being built.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of DEM and the Narragansett Bay Research Reserve, 14 Rhode Island communities, including Bristol, South Kingstown and, most recently, Johnston have adopted a conservation development ordinance. Ten other communities are drafting such an ordinance.

Beyond Rhode Island, Massachusetts also has had success changing zoning laws to allow for its conservation development and open space planning. This is important to the Ocean State, as so much of the water that ends up in Narragansett Bay trickles in from our neighbor to the north and east.

So far, about 8,000 acres of land in Rhode Island have been preserved from development thanks to conservation development, according to Millar.

Retail Strips Need Serious Makeovers

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

EAST PROVIDENCE — If congested shopping centers and dysfunctional strip malls stress you to the point of road rage, help is on the way — albeit slowly.

It may take several decades, but a movement is gaining momentum here in Rhode Island and across the country to make commercial districts more attractive, sustainable and even more profitable.

On Nov. 3 at the Agawam Hunt Club, an authority in this movement, Narragansett resident Randall Arendt, spoke to a group of construction executives, commercial real-estate professionals and municipal planners to drive home the message that collaborative planning will make retail strips more hospitable and environmentally better.

An expert on creative real estate development and conservation, Arendt travels the United States and Canada with a slide show depicting examples of ugly shopping centers and crowded roads he calls "retail chaos."

Randall Arendt is working to make retail strips stress-free and more environmentally friendly. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News staff)It's taken some 50 years to build these commercial zones, filled with Walmarts, drug stores and fast-food chains. And there's the random gas stations and oddly designed mom-and-pop stores that also add to the acres of unsightly parking lots.

Like it or not, these areas end up defining a community. "No one would have planned it," Arendt said as he stood before a screenshot of a clogged retail strip in Indiana, a sight that could be anywhere in North America. "It's not planning. It's mindless zoning."

The silver lining, he said while flipping through pictures of burger joints and warehouse stores, is that many of these buildings are poorly constructed. "The good news is it will be replaced," Arendt said.

The solutions for replacing these retail nightmares are "nothing new under the sun," he said. Put parking lots behind buildings, build stores next to the street, and add sidewalks and trees for a town-like environment.

Instead of big-box stores, build multi-story and multi-use structures. This concept, sometimes referred to as "smart growth or "new urbanism," cuts down on driving, reduces parking spaces and gives a community a feeling of self-worth. "People like towns," Arendt said.

These concepts work in rural, suburban and urban areas, often simply by clustering businesses and residential areas on top of parking lots. Trees and landscaping and better signs are more appealing to businesses and shoppers.

"We should be celebrating the buildings more than the parking lots," Arendt said.

The process has worked in places such as Sudbury and Falmouth, Mass. New Jersey and North Carolina are aggressively adopting these building policies. The planning starts with adopting new zoning rules, which Arendt called "the DNA of a community." These building design standards should at the very least address front setbacks and building height and size standards. He stressed that building owners volunteer for designs once they realize the benefits. He cited South County Commons in South Kingstown, with its mix of retail, apartments and entertainment, as one of the most successfully designed shopping areas in the state.

Middletown, Bristol, Warwick and North Kingstown also are looking at ways to improve their commercial thoroughfares. "You've got a lot of towns wrestling with this and seeing what they can do," said Sheila Brush of Grow Smart Rhode Island, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable economic development.

Developers also are seeing partnerships with planners as an area of growth. "If people want to get things done, they need to start talking with one another, not at one another," said Lawrence J. Platt, a real-estate broker and member of the Rhode Island Alliance Program, which organized the event. "There's a need here and it's unrecognized."

Green Space Part of Saving Mill Towns

John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, Pa., spoke recently at Brown University. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News staff)

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — If you were mayor what would you change? John Fetterman got that chance in a community so run down that it had lost 90 percent of its population.

"It was one of those places you didn't want to drive through," said Fetterman, a speaker during the recent "A Better World By Design" conference hosted and organized by students from Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design.

Braddock, Pa., was one of hundreds of U.S. mill towns stuck in steadily decline during the past 50 years. In its heyday, Fetterman said, this "prototypical walkable community" had nine department stores and 15 restaurants. Today it has none of either. Even the town's one hospital has been shuttered.

But Fetterman, a self-described "badass" with prominent tattoos and an imposing physique, built on his stint in the town with AmeriCorps and public policy education to eventually run for mayor in 2005. Now in his second term, Fetterman has engineered big improvements. He mobilized the town's youth to improve the city's appearance, reduce crime and create jobs for its 2,200 residents.

The crime rate in Braddock has been reduced 45 percent since Fetterman took office. The mayor took to having the names of murder victims and the dates of their violent demises tatooed on his forearm. "Thankfully," he said, "I haven't had to visit a tatoo artist in three and a half years."

Vacant lots were transformed into gardens, apiaries and playgrounds, and a community brick oven was built on one lot. Derelict buildings were converted into community buildings, art galleries and space for start-up businesses. He bought a vacant church and converted into a community center. But "truckloads of money," he said, raised through grants and corporate investment are critical for jump-starting such a turnaround.

There's still abundant blight, and "it's not a hip and alternative neighborhood," Fetterman said. But people and businesses are moving back. A company that recycles used vegetable oil into biodiesel and converts conventional gas-burning vehicles to run on the stuff has taken up residence in Braddock.

Fetterman has gained considerable media exposure for initiating this unorthodox turnaround, including appearances on the "Colbert Report" and coverage in major newspapers.

He expressed deep empathy for the plight of Central Falls and the city's recent bankruptcy. Braddock, he noted, has been in receivership since 1987.

"I feel your pain, sister," he told Gayle Corrigan, the chief of staff for Central Falls, who was in the audience.

Corrigan, who had met with Fetterman earlier in the day, urged the audience and community at large to submit creative ways for helping the maligned city. "We're open for ideas," she said.

Already, the tiny Rhode Island city seems to be adopting Fetterman's strategy. Brown University students have been interning at City Hall and one was recently hired as a planner.

Engineering a turnaround is a long fight and only for the dedicated, Fetterman said. "It's changing peoples' perspectives a thousand cuts at a time."

ecoRI News staffer Dave Fisher contributed to this report.

'Come with your Family, Come with your Friends ...'

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Open to the public, with no height restrictions, from dawn to dusk daily, but no cars allowed on the new footpath, bike road and beach area along 41 acres of Rocky Point in Warwick. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News staff.)WARWICK — "It's the Rocky Point tradition, cause it's summertime again." During the summer in the 1980s, this refrain was heard on television and radio commercials across southern New England. Well, Rocky Point is again open to the public, and as a crowd took the first official stroll along Rhode Island's newest public pathway, another common refrain was heard, "I remember when ..." 

On one side of the recently paved 1-mile trail, there is a sweeping, unobstructed view of Narragansett Bay. On the other, a 6-foot-high chain-link fence shields the remains of the former Rocky Point Park gateway and the crumbling, hulking World's Largest Shore Dinner Hall.

The warm, early summer day, briny air and the brisk cardiovascular workout brought back memories of school field trips, family outings, indoor and outdoor concerts at the Palladium and on the Midway, the quirky amusement park rides like the log flume, the Corkscrew and the giant saltwater swimming pool that once graced Rocky Point.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., spoke of visits with school-age friends and the boys trying, and mostly failing, to win some form of dating affirmation from the girls.

"This place has been in the hearts of Rhode Islanders for a long, long time," he said during the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for the latest and perhaps final incarnation of a portion of 124 acres of the local coastline. 

After a massive debt load closed the amusement park in 1995, Rocky Point fell into considerable disrepair, suffering from vandalism and incidences of arson. Private plans for housing and condo developments on the prime real estate came and went with the ebb and flow of the local economy. But 41 acres of beach and rocky shoreline was officially secured for public use in 2008 when $4.4 million in government subsidies went toward the purchase — $2.2 million federal, $1.4 million state, $800,000 from the city of Warwick.

The remaining 83 acres, which contained many of the amusement park's buildings and rides, as well as wetlands, a pond and cool rock formations, is being held in receivership by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Thanks in large part to last November's voter-approved referendum, the state has up to $10 million to buy the land and secure it for public use. Discussions have included restoring some of the well-known establishments such as the Shore Dinner Hall and Palladium dance hall.

Warwick natives Meredith and Jack Ruggieri hoped that the banquet-style dining venue, where their son worked as a teenager, would return. "The clam cakes can't be beat. There's none better anywhere than Rocky Point." Meredith said.

A regular hiker and biker in Rhode Island, she said public money should always help protect and preserve open space, especially after seeing the 148-year-old Rhode Island institution close suddenly. "We thought it would last forever," she said.

The new Rocky Point park beach and walking path is open from dawn to dusk daily.

Protecting Rhode Island’s Small Spaces

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Saving large swaths of open space and farmland has long been the mission of land trusts and environmental groups. But some land preservation organizations are starting to think a little smaller.

In addition to protecting large rural tracts of land, the Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT) is trying to preserve Newport parks and residential lots, so city dwellers can readily enjoy the scarce open space along with the aquatic habitat.

In 2009, ALT began protecting parks that, despite being open to the public, might still have been developed. Some land donors request open space protection, but not all have permanent building restrictions. So despite the wishes of donors and promises from city officials, most land owned by a city or town can still be sold off.

“Intentions change all the time, especially with political changes every two years,” said Ted Clement, ALT's executive director.

Last year, ALT paid Newport $50,000 to buy perpetual conservation easements for more than 9 acres at King and Spencer parks, keeping waterfront land from becoming liquid assets.

Privately owned vacant lots also are being targeted for protection by ALT. “You have some neighborhoods where kids can’t walk safely to a green space,” Clement said. ALT has identified about 100 such lots in Newport and created a priority list to keep them from being developed. Clement won't reveal any locations to keep prices from escalating, but the Van Zandt Avenue area is one where lots now sitting behind a fence may soon become a passive recreation area, a playground or community garden.

ALT board chairman Bill Corcoran said the lots where he played as a child have mostly vanished. "Newport is getting filled in, every little square inch of it," he said. But if the new program succeeds those public spaces can come back. "If we can turn them into a pocket park instead of a house we can make them a much better place for the neighborhoods." 

To be successful, Clement said, city leaders, landowners and the ALT must work together to be sure all tax and legal considerations are addressed. “We know real estate is a commodity here even in a recession," he said. "Collaboration is essential.”

The small public-space phenomenon is also taking place in urbanized areas like Pawtucket and densely suburbanized towns like North Providence and Westerly.

For several years, a legal battle in North Providence is being fought to save 15 acres of the former Camp Meehan property from becoming a housing subdivision. “Any significant land gets gobbled up pretty quickly for development because of density,” said Ken Conte, president of the North Providence Land Trust.

In the meantime, the town of only 5.7 square miles has found that “postage stamp” lots are also worth preserving. Without needing loans or grant money, the quasi town-run land trust acquired two lots and is working with neighborhood residents to decide the best public use for the properties, such as a playground or garden.

Conte said this “low-hanging fruit” offered by backyard lots might be quicker to acquire and preserve. But they still require a big investment in doing it right, as well as some luck. “It’s a difficult task," he said.

In Newport, negotiations are underway with at least one landowner, but within the past year two lots on the priority list have had house built on them.

“The window of opportunity is closing quite quickly here. We've got to seize this moment,” Clement said. “We need to act while we still have time."

R.I. Students Turn Shipping Containers into Shelter

By SHEANA LIVINGSTONE/ecoRI News contributor

You've probably driven by these and wondered, 'What the heck is that?' Now you know. (Sheana Livingstone/ecoRI News contributor)PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island School of Design is working collaboratively with the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE) at Brown University to form Project Re-Box. Joe Haskett of Distill Studios and Peter Gill Case of Truth Box Architects have come together to design and develop sustainable “off-the-grid” housing by means of project Re-Box.

Project Re-Box is the effort to re-use and utilize out-of-commission steel shipping containers while tackling practical issues such as affordable sustainable housing, demand reduction, economic growth and energy consumption. With $150,000 in federal funding and a team of RISD students working in the Re-Box studio, ideas are coming together to design sustainable structures.

The concept behind Project Re–Box is based off the Box Office building. The Box Office was created in fall 2008 by Haskett and Case. Their purpose was to save their construction company by designing a building that would thrive under poor economic conditions. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., advocated and applauded their work when he commented that the Box Office is "ingenious and clever and I salute you both. It is incredible.”

During the official unveiling of Project Re-Box at the RISD museum, Haskett and Case told the crowd that the Box Office is “the most energy efficient building around. ... It has cut energy cost by two-thirds over a typical office building and the solar array will produce half of the buildings annual energy needs.” Through the collaborative efforts from RISD and RI-CIE, along with the recent federal funding secured by Reed, Haskett and Case intend on continuing to develop off-the-grid designs with Project Re-Box.

Project Re-Box’s development is housed in RISD’s Re-Box studio, which includes professors Joseph Dean and Marcus Berger, director Brendon McNally and a class of 16 RISD students. They are working on ideas on how to design, develop and utilize steel shipping containers. If their ideas are approved, RI-CIE will assist in finding the best avenues to bring their ideas to market. “There is a need for a new creative, inclusive, innovative, non-adversarial and comprehensive re–thinking of how we humans do things," Dean said. "This is the thrust of the Re–Box studio and this partnership.”

Dean and Berger’s students completed their first Re-Box mid-term last month, which officially kicked off the first of three phases of the project. The students are working independently on projects in the RISD Re-Box studio, and their ideas range from urban farms that would grow fruits and vegetables to mobile classrooms and highway rest stops. One student is developing a slow-moving non-destination train that would allow communities the opportunity to move through and observe the landscape. Another student has designed “The Can," a mobile and “off-the-grid” bathroom that would compost organic waste and re-define the on-the-road bathroom experience. 

Other students are working on emergency disaster drop-off containers that would be shipped by helicopter to areas in need. These temporary communities would include first-aid buildings, schools and small housing units. Other students are working on ideas for mobile class rooms, a library/bookshop, low-income housing, student housing, student-run art venues and a hotel with retail space that would float on a barge and have the ability to be used in different areas.

Through RISD’s and RI-CIE’s partnership and Re-Box’s innovative approach to re-using steel shipping containers, everyday objects are creating affordable sustainable housing. These students are addressing critical issues such as recycling, energy consumption, sustainability and community organization, which, according to Reed are "essential to our economic vitality, our international competitiveness, and our long term success as a nation.”

What Made the Flood of 2010 So Devastating?

By DAVID FISHER/ecoRI News staff

Climatologists predict climate change will be marked not only by rising global temperatures, loss of polar ice and rising sea levels, but also more frequent and violent weather patterns. Sound familiar?

For Rhode Islanders, it should. Record rains in February and March caused flooding that destroyed homes, businesses and infrastructure. The impacts were most severe along the Pawtuxet, Wood and Pawcatuck rivers, and their tributaries, where bridges and dams washed out, including the Blue Pond, Geneva Pond and Usquepaugh dams.

Several factors contributed to these destructive floods. Heavy rain in a short period of time is the obvious culprit. Beginning with a Feb. 23-24 storm, the National Weather Service registered 4 inches of rainfall on its Warwick rain gauge. Another quarter of an inch fell between March 1-4 and from March 13-15 and March 22-23 the gauge logged another 3.7 and 3.4 inches, respectively. Add to that amount the 8.8 inches of rain that fell between March 29 and April 1, and Rhode Island was soaked by a total of 20.15 inches of rain in just 38 days.

Soil is like a paper towel, and depending on its quality, can only absorb so much water. When it reaches its saturation point, water begins to roll off. On March 29, the soil in Rhode Island’s watersheds already was drenched, so, when heavy rains began the next day, that water rolled directly into already-engorged rivers, streams and reservoirs. The Pawtuxet River crested at nearly 21 feet, more than 11 feet above flood stage.

Concrete jungle
Impervious surfaces, such as asphalt, concrete and roofing, also contributed to the severity of the flooding. These hard surfaces increase the speed with which stormwater runoff flows.

In Rhode Island, where development has long outpaced population growth, that carries added significance, since 75 percent of the population lives in a 40-mile-long urban/suburban corridor along the shores of Narragansett Bay and in the watersheds of the Blackstone, Woonasquatucket and Pawtuxet rivers.

In fact, 14 percent of the entire Narragansett Bay watershed is covered with impervious surfaces, according to the recent Narragansett Bay Estuary Program environmental condition report, Currents of Change.

Besides creating concrete plots and acres of asphalt, development also leads to the destruction of natural buffers, such as vegetation and wetlands, that help protect sensitive areas from flooding — or at least from disastrous flooding like the Ocean State recently experienced.

“We’ve developed land, and modified rivers, in ways which increase the height and speed of floods when they occur,” according to a recent op-ed written by Thomas Ardito, restoration program manager for the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, and Rachel Calabro, community organizer for Save The Bay. “Impervious surfaces such as roads, parking lots and buildings, combined with storm-drain systems, shunt rainfall directly into streams and rivers, rather than allowing it to seep into the groundwater, from which it would be slowly released to surface waters. As a result, our urban rivers rise more rapidly and flow more quickly than those in less developed areas.”

Wetlands and forests act as natural “sponges” to hold rainwater, releasing it slowly into the ground and surface waters such as rivers and lakes. Rhode Island has lost nearly 40 percent of its wetlands to development since the 18th century, according to an estimate by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Trees contribute in many ways to stormwater mitigation. Some rainwater stays on leaves, and evaporates directly into the air. Leaves slow rainfall and reduce raindrop impact, and gentler rain causes less erosion. Tree roots absorb water from the soil, drying it out and increasing its ability to store more. Tree roots also hold the soil in place, reducing the movement of sediment that can narrow river channels downstream.

More flooding likely
According to the state Emergency Management Agency, the recent floods were a 100-year to 500-year event — a 100-year flood, for example, has a 1 percent statistical probability of occurring in any given year. That doesn’t mean, however, that Rhode Island will have to wait another hundred years to witness something similar.

In fact, it’s likely Rhode Island will experience severe flooding much more frequently in the future. Many climatologists have predicted that the Northeast will witness increasing rainfall in the coming years, much of it a result of climate change.

River floods are a natural occurrence, while flood damage is the result of development decisions, according to both Ardito and Calabro. Both the Warwick and Rhode Island malls, they noted, were built on a floodplain — an area that, for thousands of years, has been periodically inundated by the Pawtuxet River. Long before these malls were built, the land was forest, and later, until about the 1950s, it was used primarily for farming. The recent floods caused extensive damage because millions of dollars worth of buildings and inventory had been placed in an area susceptible to flooding.

As Rhode Island works to recover from the spring floods — with funding assistance from the federal government — “we must strive to reduce our vulnerability to future flood events, rather than simply rebuilding the problem,” wrote Ardito and Calabro. “Bridges and culverts should be redesigned to handle higher flows — so they don’t act as dams during floods, as happened throughout the region during the March storm.”

Rhode Island’s dams also are vulnerable to flooding events — as became clear when several failed during the recent floods. Of the more than 600 dams in Rhode Island, some still serve useful purposes — water supply, recreation and hydropower — but most are obsolete. Most of these outdated dams provide no flood control benefits, because they have no additional capacity to store floodwaters.

Some obsolete dams — including three of the first five dams on the lower Woonasquatucket River, for example— have been removed in recent years, and more removals are planned. However, much can be done to accelerate the pace of dam removal, according to Calabro and Ardito, such as setting priorities for removal, streamlining regulatory requirements and providing more federal and state funding for the work, which can cost several hundred thousand dollars for a typical mill dam.

Rhode Island and Massachusetts “must find better ways of reconciling property issues related to dams, which are often privately owned structures, but can have a big impact on public resources and public safety,” Calabro and Ardito wrote in their April 7 op-ed. “In instances where private or public owners are unwilling or unable to manage dams in a manner sufficiently protective of the public interest, we believe states should be willing to use the power of condemnation to take ownership, and provide funding for removal or repair.”

There is precedent for “undeveloping” vulnerable areas, as was done in Warwick in the 1980s, when the Army Corps of Engineers bought and demolished more than 60 flood-prone houses in the area that is now Belmont Park.

But even as the economic impacts of the recent flooding are being assessed, some developers still are trying to acquire permits and floodplain designation variances along the banks of the Pawtuxet River, some for plots as big as 10 acres.

The short-term ecological effects of the floods are clear. Riverbanks were eroded, stream channels were widened and some soil was contaminated.

The long-term environmental impacts are less known.

Uncounted tons of pollution were washed into Narragansett Bay: trash from roads and Dumpsters; petroleum and other toxic chemicals from factories and garages; millions of gallons of raw sewage from inundated treatment plants.

In an aerial survey taken April 1 of the flooded areas near the Wood-Pawcatuck River, plumes of what appeared to be industrial chemicals were observed in the water by Chris Fox, executive director of the Wood-Pawcatuck River Association, at the confluence of the Pawcatuck and Beaver rivers, adjacent to Kenyon Industries in Kenyon and at Horseshoe Falls in Shannock. As holding lagoons by the plants were flooded out, heavy metals and chemical contaminants may have been washed downstream by the rushing waters, and may have settled in new areas.

While the clean up of the damage caused by the March floods continues, it’s unlikely that cash-strapped state and local governments will be able to make the big changes to infrastructure necessary to reduce Rhode Island’s vulnerability to these kinds of events — even though they may be more frequent in the future.

Impervious Cover Lets Runoff to Storm Ahead

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI News staff

Rhode Island is one of the most densely populated states, resulting in a statewide average impervious cover of 12 percent. Much of the state’s impervious cover is contained within the urban services boundary, which is outlined in red. (Department of Environmental Management)Driveways, highways, rooftops, patios, parking lots and sidewalks cover 12 percent of Rhode Island. That may not seem like a lot of cement, asphalt and shingles, but these manmade impervious surfaces quickly funnel contaminated stormwater runoff into steams, ponds and rivers before the water has a chance to soak into the ground.

The impacts are devastating and far reaching.

Flooding, as Rhode Island witnessed earlier this spring, becomes both more common and more intense. Water tables drop and rivers, streams and wells fed by groundwater begin to dry up — see the Hunt River in Kent County as proof. Freshwater habitat is destroyed as sediment is sent downstream and surges of stormwater erode riverbanks and alter stream beds.

All that sediment that is hurried down rivers and streams by surging stormwater, for example, destroys the gravel spawning beds of native trout.

“Stormwater runoff from impervious cover obliterates habitat,” said Scott Millar, chief of the state Department of Environmental Management’s Sustainable Watersheds Office. “Who’s going to go out there and remove that sediment?”

In fact, since freshwater ecosystems are so closely linked to human activity — such as paving over open space that often destroys natural buffers —nearly half of the 573 animals on the U.S. threatened and endangered list are freshwater species, according to National Geographic.

Besides altering and destroying freshwater habitat, surging stormwater rushing over impervious surfaces — fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides also run unimpeded off lawns — collects and carries with it a host of vile pollutants that end up swimming in our waterways.

The most common disturbance in the chemical make-up of streams and rivers is elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorous. Other common contaminants include calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride from road salt. Runoff from impervious surfaces also contains metals such as nickel, chrome, lead, copper and zinc.

The only chemical that should be found in a healthy stream is dissolved oxygen.

“Nobody wants to go swimming or fishing in water that includes oil runoff and pesticides from lawns,” Millar said. “But that’s essentially what we are doing.”

About 75 percent of the stream miles that feed Rhode Island’s waterways with clean water are small headwater streams that typically are small enough to be straddled by a child. These streams, which are so small they often are not mapped or overlooked during development plans, are highly sensitive to land-use changes.

“These low-water streams often are ignored during the development process,” Millar said. “They are easily susceptible to contamination from stormwater runoff. These streams are feeding much of the clean water to the bay. We have no chance to clean up the bay if these streams are damaged. We can’t clean up our urban environment and at the same time ignore these streams.”

If the amount of impervious cover becomes too great in the areas where there are headwater streams, irreversible damage can occur to drinking water quality and aquatic habitat, according to a recently revised report entitled “The Need to Reduce Impervious Cover to Prevent Flooding and Protect Water Quality.”

The 20-page report, funded by the Providence Water Supply Board and the National Park Service, recommends keeping overall impervious cover below 10 percent, which will allow the land to absorb and filter runoff from developed areas and prevent excessive flooding, ecosystem impairment and contamination of water supplies.

“Water can’t penetrate these manmade surfaces,” said Millar, who edited the report that was written and researched by Dodson Associated Ltd., a Massachusetts-based landscape architect firm. “And there’s a lot of these surfaces in the landscape.”

As impervious cover increases above 10 percent, water quality begins to suffer, Millar said. When a landscape features 25 percent to 40 percent impervious surfaces, damage becomes severe; any percentage above that there’s a good chance any damage caused will be beyond repair, he said.

Most of the state’s impervious surfaces can be found within a 40-mile-long urban/suburban corridor along the shores of Narragansett Bay and in the watersheds of the Blackstone, Woonasquatucket and Pawtuxet rivers. Within this area, which the report refers to as the urban services boundary, impervious cover makes up 25 percent of the landscape.

Millar said it is important that Rhode Island keep future development within this already built-up corridor. The Exeter resident also said it is imperative that the state’s 39 municipalities adopt more creative land-use techniques and development standards that will guide growth away from sensitive areas, such as those that feature headwater streams, wetlands and woodlands.

Under natural forested conditions, only about 10 percent of precipitation runs off the surface, 50 percent soaks into the ground and 40 percent is absorbed by trees and other vegetation, according to the report.

As roads, houses and office buildings are built, this ratio starts to change, with runoff increasing as the amount of impervious cover grows. For example, the total runoff volume for a 1-ace parking lot is about 16 times that produced by an undeveloped 1-acre meadow, according to the report.

In fact, according to Millar, parking is a big issue when it comes to the amount of impervious surfaces that blanket Rhode Island.

“Everything is over-designed for massive pickup trucks and SUVs,” he said. “Build smaller parking spaces near buildings and offices for smaller cars. You can still drive those bigger vehicles, you’ll just have to park farther away.”

The DEM, the Narragansett Bay Research Reserve, Grow Smart Rhode Island and other organizations are promoting more environmentally friendly development practices, such as low-impact development, village development and conservation development. The DEM and Coastal Resources Management Council are even providing grants to cities and towns to encourage new development practices, Millar said.

The development practices that are being promoted avoid impacting sensitive areas and open space, minimize clearing and grading, use vegetated treatment systems, such as rain gardens and rain roofs, and protect natural drainage areas. These practices also call for mixed-use development, smaller lot development, narrower roads, getting rid of curb and gutter requirements and reducing or eliminating cul-de-sacs.

“There’s no reason to have a sea of asphalt at the end of a subdivision,” Millar said. “There are a lot of simple things we can do to decrease the impacts of stormwater runoff.”

Forest Management Vital Role of Providence Water

By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI News staff

Christopher Riely, a forest supervisor for Providence Water, said the timber behind him, which was taken from a harvest in the northern tip of the Scituate Reservoir watershed, was low quality and would likely end up being used as chip wood, fuel wood and/or shavings for horse paddocks. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI staff)NORTH SCITUATE — In the early 1900s, the city of Providence, in its pursuit to create what would become Rhode Island’s largest body of fresh water, started buying barns, sawmills, icehouses, dairy farms, schools, churches and the land upon which these structures sat.

The city ended up taking control of nearly 400 homes, 230-plus barns, about 30 dairy farms, a handful of schools and churches, and a railroad. Some of the 2,000 or so people who were displaced — they were compensated in some fashion for their property loss — fought their evictions, to no avail.

The buildings these people lived in and worked at were quickly torn down. The fields and pastures that weren’t flooded, became nurseries for the 7 million trees, mostly red and white pines, that were planted during the late 1920s and ’30s.

Begun in 1915, the Scituate Reservoir by 1926 had flooded a great natural bowl at the headwaters of the north branch of the Pawtuxet River.

Health issues and increasing demand on the Pawtuxet River prompted the Providence City Council to develop a new water supply system.

Now, eight decades later, two-thirds of the state drinks water from this manmade lake, which forms a long, crooked V across the midsection of Scituate. Some believe this source of clean water allowed metropolitan Providence to grow and for the state to prosper.

It’s also possible that if the reservoir is managed wisely, the state’s largest freshwater tap could run forever.

That responsibility falls to Providence Water, which was established in 1926 and is now an independently operating city department supplying water to about 600,000 Rhode Islanders.

Providence Water, however, manages more than just the 5,000 acres that comprise the Scituate Reservoir and its five smaller tributary reservoirs. The agency is responsible for monitoring the entire 93-square-mile public drinking supply watershed. The agency owns about 25 square miles of that land.

There are 12,500 acres of mostly forested lands in Cranston, Foster, Glocester, Johnston and Scituate that surround the reservoirs and are owned by Providence Water. This mixed oak-pine forest has been heavily shaped by human settlement and changing land uses during the past three and a half centuries.

Rob MacMillan, a senior forest supervisor who has worked for Providence Water for 20 years, told those who attended Saturday’s walk-and-talk through the northern tip of the Scituate Reservoir watershed that a healthy forest is needed to protect the drinking water supply. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI staff)Thus, forest management plays a vital role in what Providence Water does.

“Forest cover is needed to protect water quality,” said Rob MacMillan, a senior forest supervisor for Providence Water. “We need to continue to regenerate these forestlands. Every time a house, road or field is introduced in the watershed, more pollutants and contaminants follow. Healthy forests provide protection.”

On Saturday, MacMillan and Christopher Riely, a forest supervisor for Providence Water, led a three-hour, 2.5-mile walk-and-talk through some forestland in the northern tip of the watershed.

Watershed lands around the Scituate Reservoir are closed to unauthorized access for security reasons — someone caught trespassing could be fined up to $200 — so Saturday morning’s guided tour, which Providence Water hopes to make a seasonal event, attracted about 30 people.

The primary goal of the agency’s forest management program is to manage forests in the watershed to optimize water production and quality. To properly manage these forestlands, Providence Water allows loggers to bid on harvesting timber from specifically targeted sites.

“You have to plan looking ahead decades,” MacMillan said. “Trees have lifetimes in the hundreds of years, so you better plan ahead.”

Saturday’s tour went through a slice of a 126-acre timber harvest that currently is in hiatus. This harvest, which began last year, is intended to improve growing conditions and forest health in five stands.

The harvest, which will begin again this summer, will primarily remove mixed oak small sawtimber, white pine sawtimber and cordwood of both species, according to the agency’s Saundersville Crossing Timber Harvest Plan.

Water quality of the Scituate Reservoir depends largely on the health of the watershed’s forests. (Joanna Detz/ecoRI staff)Besides monitoring well-planned timber harvests that encourage forest regeneration and promote the continued growth of a stand’s remaining trees, Providence Water makes sure the watershed forestlands feature a diverse tree population — mostly white pine, red pine, red oak, white oak, red maple and sugar maple — and manages invasive species — bittersweet, barberry and buckthorn — that hinder the development of a healthy forest.

“Our job is to promote a healthy and resilient forest that can withstand hurricanes, insects, pathogens, gypsy moths and invasive species,” Riely said. “We need to maintain a diverse portfolio of (tree) species and age classes that ensure the watershed remains healthy.”

For more information, visit provwater.com.

Recommended reading: “The Lost Villages of Scituate,” by Raymond A. Wolf.