RZV-T-91-OOX C2 ; 9AN ',AFY it",I~

iston~ ~gds um~iLrTi~> air SeaGrant OeIjository Water Quality and Fisheries NarragansettBay

Ahn Delbannetand VirginiaLee

OO~~s P-12586 RIU-T-91-001 OPSY&M5OUIICj'L Cf'NItI CRP+ This publication is sponsoredby NOAA Office of SeaGrant, U,S. Departmentof Commerce,under Grant ¹NA89AA-D-SG-082, The U.S.Government is authorizedto produceand distribute reprints for governmentalpurposes notwithstanding any copyrightnotation that may appear heron.

Additional copies of this publication are available from: Rhode Island Sea Grant Publications, University of Rhode Island Bay Campus,Narragansett, RI 02882-1197.Order P1258.

National SeaGrant DepositoryPublication ¹RIU-T-91-001. Loan copies availablefrom the National SeaGrant Depository,Pell Li- braryBuilding, University of RhodeIsland Bay Campus, Narragansett, RI 02882-1197.

Rhode Island Sea Grant, December 1991.

Cover Photo: From GS. Goode. 1887. The fisheries and fishery industry of the United States. U.S. Dept. Interior, Washington, DC.

SeaGrant is a nationalprogram dedicated to promoting the wise use and developmentof marine resourcesfor thepublic benefit. l,oANCOPY ONLY

Historical Trends

Water Quality and Fisheries Narragansett Bay

A Reportto

NationalOcean Pollution Program ONce NationalSea Grant ComegeR~im NationalOceanic and AtmosphericAdministration U.S. Departmentof Commerce %ashington,D.C. 2023$

Alan Desbonnetand Virginia Lee

Coastal Resources Center GraduateSchool of Oceanography Universityof Rhodebland Narragansett,M 02882

Mapping: Neil K. Christerson URI Department of Marine Affairs

Publishedby Rhode Bland Sea Grant December 1991

Printed on RecycledPaper ~ ts~j

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ,...iv ChapterI. Profile of NarragansettBay .... ~ ~...... ~ ...... ,...... ,.~...... 1 The Physical Environment...... ,...... ,...... 1 GeologicalOverview...,.... Climate.. Freshwater Inputs Circulation .....7 Major Uses...... 8 ShorelineDevelopment ... 8 Recreation...... 9 Fishing 10 Shipping 10 Industry ...... .11 Chapter2. Bay Issuesand Management:An Overview ..13 Issues 13 ComprehensiveManagement 13 Pollution ...... 14 Risk from Contaminated Fish and Shellfish ...... 1 4 ShorelineDevelopment ,...... 1 4 Enforcement Issues...... 1 5 Dredging ...... 1 5 Permitting Process. 15 Bay Managers The NarragansettBay Project A Major ResearchInitiative ...... 17 SaveThe Bay A PotentEnvironmental Advocacy Group ....17 Chapter 3. The Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Growth and Pollution ...... ,...... 19 Colonial NarragansettBay ...19 The Industrial Revolution ...... ,........ ,.. ...20 From 1900 to World War II. ....23 From the Postwar Era to 1970. ,...28 From 1970 to the Present. ....29 Chapter4. Trendsin WaterQuality in Upper Nanegansen Bay: Providenceand SeekonkRivers ~ $$~~ ~~ 33 Organic Carbonand DissolvedOxygen ...... 34 Sources of BOD . ,....,. 34 BOD Loading ...... ,...... 36 DissolvedOxygen Concentrations . ,...,38 Nutrients ...... ... Sources of Nutrients . Nutrient Loading ...... 40 Toxics ...... ,...... ,. ,....42 Sources of Metals ...... ,....42 Metals Loadings Sources of Organotoxins Organotoxin Loadings 46 Sourcesof PetroleumHydrocarbons. HydrocarbonLoadings. ....47 Pathogens ....48 Sourcesof Pathogens 48 Pathogen Loadings .,49 Chapter5. Trendsin LowerNarragansett Bay Water Quality...... 51 DissolvedOxygen, ...... 51 Nutrients . 54 Nitrogen. ...,54 Phosphate ...56 Silica. ....56 Plankton ....57 Implications for Eutrophication ....58 Toxins. Metals Petroleum Hydrocarbons 63 PCBs. Waterborne Pathogens. , .....65 GeneralConclusions - Upper and Lower Bay .....66 Chapter6. Trendsin WaterQuality in Mount HopeB ay...... ~ ...... ,...... 67 Water Quality Concerns . 69 Bacterial Contamination...... 69 Toxics Contamination .. 70 Trendsin PollutantLoadings ...... 70 CSOs ...... 70 Rivers ... 7 1 POTWs .....71 Physicaland Biological Trends ' ...... 73 Physical Trends ...... 73 Potentialfor Eutrophicationand Anoxia...... 76 Biological Trends ...77 General Conclusions ...... 8 1 Chapter7. Trendsin NarragansettBay Fisheries .....83 Finfisheries ...... 84 Anadromous Fisheries .....84 Migratory Fisheries . ..85 Bay-Based Fisheries...... 87 Summary-Finfisheries . .....,. , 89 Shellftsheries...... The OysterIndustry. The Hard Clam Fishery ...... 92 References 95 This document should be referenced as:

Desbonnet,A. andV. Lee. 1991. HistoricalTrends: Water Quality and Fisheries,Narragansett Say. The Universityof RhodeIsland Coastal ResourcesCenter Contribution No. 100and NationalSea Grant Publication ¹RIU-T-91-001.Graduate School oF Oceanography, Narragansett, RI. 101 pp.

Chapter 1

%gute 1.1 Narragansett8ay. Datapmvded by R/QlS t 990!, Profile of Narragansett Bay

Geologlcaf Overview sediments. The scarpis often unvegetated and steeply sloping. The most erosion The bay bottom is composed of resistant shorelines are bedrock. In sheltered glacially derived sedimentscovered with up waters where sediments accumulate, salt to 15 m of silt and sand eroded from land over marshes flourish and overlie the rock, sand, the past8,000-12,000 years. In general,the or silt; however,salt marshesmake up only sediments tend to be sand toward the mouth approximately3% of the total open-water of the bay, grading to mud and silt in the area of the bay Halvorsen and Gardiner, upper reaches which receive most of the 1976!,Compel toestuarieslike Chesapeake riverineand wastewater loadings McMaster, Bay and Indian RiverLagoon, Narragansett 1960!. Because the watershed was scoured Bay supports relatively little vegetation, during the most recent glaciation event, Eelgrassbeds are limited to patches.A 1978 sedimentloads arriving to the bayfrom rivers shorelinesurvey by Boothroydand Al-Saud are generallysmall, and the quantityof total 978! revealed that one-fourth of the natural suspended matter in the bay is minor. shorelinehad been replacedby man-made Suspendedsediment concentrations average structures such as piers, bulkheads, wharves, 4 mg/1,but va1uesas high as 100 mg/I have and pilings. Boothroyd is currently beenrecorded occasionally in theProvidence conducting a similar study ta updatethese River and may be attributed to sewage results. treatment plant inputs. Santschi et al. 984! determined that, on average,Narragansett Climate Bay presently accumulatessediment at a rate of 0.3 mrn per year. Narragansett Bay is situated in a The bay's shoreline is indented and temperate climate zone which imparts a generallysteeply sloping, affording sweeping marked seasonality to air and water views of the bay. Becauseof the many temperatures. Annual air temperature islandsand small coves, the shorelineis quite averages10'C, rangingfrom temperaturesof long relative to the size of the bay, The 1.7'C for January February the coldest shoreline is varied, ranging from rocky months!to 22.0'C for July thehottest! Figure headlands at the southernmost wave-washed 1.2!. Freezingtemperatures typically occur tips of the mainland and islands, to quiet 120 days per year, betweenNovember and covesfringed with salt marshscatteredaround March. Interestingly,annual air temperature the bay, to bulkheads in the urban hasincreased slightly since the early 1960s environmentsof themany smaH ports around Figure 1.2!. Surface water temperatures the bay and the city waterfrontat its head. also exhibit a warming trend from 1967to Thereare a few sandybeaches along 1985 Figure 1.2!, Surfacewatertemperature the bay in placeswhere longshorecurrents variesseasonally, from an averageof -0.5'C havebuilt small barrier spits acrossshallow in Decemberto 24'C in August Figure 1.2!. embaymentsor formedcuspate beaches such Annual water temperature averages9.9- as Conimicut Point. The most common 11.6'C Figure 1,2!. Ice coverduring winter shorelinealong the bay is a narrowbeach of months is generally limited to surfacewaters gravel,cobble, and boulders backed by a in the upper parts of the bay and adjacent scarp or bluff of unconsolidated glacial shallow coves. Chapter 1

25 190

20 170 I 150 10 130 O 5 49110 8 90 70

1996 1916 1936 1956 1976 Rgure1.8 Long-termtime weighted average annual precjpitationin theProvidence, Rl region,showing a gradual increase since 1915. Data taken from Pilson 989!,

10 is 115.3crn. Someseasonality in cloudcover is evident,with November December being themost cloudy period and July theleast. 9 188$1888 1873 1878 18N 1988 Figure 1.4 showsan averageannual WhaleRock - - - Alr Temp rise in relativesea level at Newport sincethe Fmtkaaoo early 1930s. This apparentsea level rise is due to a combination of local coastal Figure 1.2 Time weightedmonthly and average subsidence and eustatic sea level rise due to annualsea surface Jeffneset al., 1988!and air temperature Pilson, 1989! along Narragansett Bay, global warming trends. Hicks et al. 983! showingincreasesin air and watertemperature since determinedfrom 50 years of data that at least the mid-190Qs. Rir temperaturescollected NarragansettBay experiencesa relativerise southof Providence,Ri at T,F.Green State airport. SeeFigure 1.1 for bcationsof seasurface sampling in sealevel of approxitnately1,8 2.6cm per sites. decade.

Rainfallaverages 106 cm per year, with little seasonalchange exhibited in Rgure 1A Long-termchanges in relativesea level heightat Newport,Rl showingan averageincrease of precipitationpatterns. In general,July is the 22 mmrdecade. Datum refers to a fixed benchmark driestmonth with an averagerainfall of 2.49 959! from which measurwnents of sea level are mm per day and December is the wettest taken,and ensuresconsistency between years of measure. Data taken from Hicks et al. 983!. monthwith 3.94mm of precipitationper day Pilson, 1989!. Measurableprecipitation 1.2 I occursabout one day out of threethroughout 31.1 the year. Although averageannual snowfall is 101 cm, it is rare for snow to remain on the groundfor any lengthof time. As shownin Figure1.3, a slightlyupward trend in average g 0.9 annualrainfall has beennoted for the bay region since the early 1900s. The time- 0.8 1929 1939 1949 195$ 1969 1979 averagedannual precipitation for this period Profile of Narragansett Bay

Ftgure1.5 TheNarragansett Bay drainage basin. The vvatersheds of the major tributaries to thebay are labeled,as arethose portions in thestate of Massachusetts,Map data provided by RlGIS990!. Chapter 1

Freshwater Inputs rain falling directly onto the bay's surface Table 1.1!. Five rivers provide 78% of the surface United States Geological Survey freshwaterinput to NarragansettHay, These USGS!gauging stations havemonitored river rivers drain a watershedof 4.3 x 10' km', flow on the bay's two major tributaries,the much of which iscontained within the state of Blackstone and the Taunton, since 1929, and Massachusetts Figure 1.5!. Total average on other tributariesmore recently seeTable annualinput of freshwater into Narragansett 1.2!.The total gauged river flow to thebay is Bay is estimatedby Ries 990! to be 107.5 Figure 1.7 Long-termtime weightedaverage annual m'/sec adaptedfrom Ries, 1990!. Rivers river flow to NarragansettBay, suggestinga slightly and runoff account for 83% of total fresh increasing trend over time. Data taken from USGS water input to the bay, 4% is provided by river gauging records for the state of Rhode Island as reported by Pilson 989!. sewagetreatment discharges, and 13% from

2000 Figure T.6 Time weighted monthly averages for 1500 gaugedriver flowandprecipitation to the bay, showing E the lack of correlation between the two, and the lack of seasonaNyln precfpitatfon to thebay area. Data taken ~+1000 from Pilson ft98gj. II 500 ~~ 8 16 4 7 R 14g 0 12 4 E 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 5 C 1 f0 g 4 distinctlyseasonal, with a maximumin March 6 q anda minimumin August Figure 1.6!. The I1 Augustminimum is a resultof a rapidrate of ~0 evapotranspiration rather than a seasonal reflection of the amountof rainfall Pilson, 1989; Figure 1.6!. Although river flow to NarragansettBay is highly variable,a slightly increasinglong-tenn trend 7'able1.2 USGSriver gauging stations used to estimateriver flowinto is evident Figure 1.7!, NarragansettBay. Drainage area refers to the area of drainagebasin above the gauge, often much less than that of the entire river.' possiblycorrelated to long- term increases in annual USGS Gauging Station DrainageArea Yearsof precipitation. km ! Service It appearsthat over at Taunton River af State Farm 668.2 1929-1976 least the past thirty years, 1985-1987 Wading River near Norton 112.4 1953-1966 NarragansettBay is getting Ten Mile Riverat N. Dighton 218.3 1967-present wanner,receives increasing SegregansettRiver near Dighton 27.5 1966-present Blackstone River af Woonsocket 1077.4 1929-present amounts of freshwater from Moshassuck River at Providence 60.4 1963-present precipitation and river flow, Woonasquatucket River 96.9 1941-present Pawfuxet River al Granston 520,6 1 939-present and experiences coastal Hunt Pofowornut!River 59.3 1940-present subsidence due to sea leveL Annaquatucket River 16.9 1961-1964 rise. 'From Pilson, 1989 Prof]le ot Narragansett Bay

according to freshwater input. Residence Cl tculatlon time may beas long as40 daysduring periods of relatively low river flow, or as shortas 10 Narragansett Bay is a well-mixed or days during periods of high river discharge vertically homogenous estuary NOAA, Pilson, 1985!, Residence time of water in 1985!. Since the bay receivesrelatively Narragansett Bay is therefore a function of srnaHamounts of freshwaterinput compared freshwater input and will vary seasonally to the volume of tidal flushing, it does not Figure 1.8!. Above a meanflow rate of 300 exhibit a strongvertical salinity gradientand rn'/sec, flushing time stabilizes and little stratified conditions do not exist in the bay further increasein flushing time occurswith proper. However, strong vertical density increasedfreshwater input Wang and gradients are common where tributaries enter Spaulding,1985!. the bay that is, in areassuch as Mount Hope Theeffecto changesin riverineinput Bay or the Providence and Seekonk Rivers!. is greatestin the Providence Seekonk River Circulation throughoutthe bay is a area,where flushing time averages3 5 days function of winds, tides, and riverine input. but can be less than 24 hours during storm Semidiurnal tides move the water within the events Malcolm SpauMing,pers. comm.!. bayevery 12.5hours, producing a tidalrange The effect of increasedfreshwater input is from 1.0m atNewport to 1,4m atthe head of noticedthroughout the bay by a decreasein theProvidence River Wangand Spaulding, flushing time, but the magnitudeof theeffect 1985!. The tidal rangeptoduces a meantidal decreasesalong a downbaytransect. prismof 347.5rniflion m', or 13%of thebay's Winds may have some short-term total volume Krcmer and Nixon, 1978!. The influence onwatermovcmcn, but their overaH tides are the major as well as thc most long-term effect on circulation patterns is consistentforce that transports materials into, minimal Malcolm Spaulding,pers. comm.!. out of, and aroundthe bay. When blowing from the south, winds have Theresidencetime of waterin thebay the potential to farce waterinto theProvidence averages 26 days Pilson, 1985! but varies River andtrap it there;but long-termisolation of waterin thc ProvidenceRiver is rare, due 18 to the periodicity of weather fronts which m16 moveover the Narragansett Bay region every 414 g12 3 5 days, Predominantwind direction is 10 from the northwest in winter, It shifts to ~ 8 southwestin summer, contributing to the ~ 6 moderatemarititne climate by blowing cool 4 $0 ~ R 2 S Q offshore breezesup the bay on hot summer 0 0 days. NarragansettBay is a highly saline estuary with a mean salinity of 28 ppt. Rgure 1.8 Seasonalpattern of residencetime of Althoughthe salinity of thewater varies both waterin NarragansettBay compared to seasonalriver spatiaHyand tetnporally, the salinity gradient ffow, showing the dependencyof flushing time on observedin NarragansettBay is weak,having freshwaterinput to the bay system. Data taken-from Pilson 98g!. a meanvalue of 32 ppt at the bay's mouth

ProfHa of Narraganseft Bay

g1000 had already becomea world-famousresort 800 for the wealthy, and the upper bay's many 700 ~ 800 coves and beaches had become vacation areas 500 for the working-class population. The 400 America's Cup yacht racesbegan in the late 300 200 1800sinthe waters of Newportand continued 100 to beheld there until 1987when the Cup was lost to an Australian racing team. Well- 1790 1840 1890 1940 1990 establishedferry servicesduring the early Flora 1.10 Long-tennchanges and trendsin popu- 1900s linked Boston and New York to lationgttowlh in the State of Rhodeisland black! and thepart of the statedraining to NarragansettBay, The Newportand other ports in RhodeIsland, and majorityof the state'spopulace resides within the bay steamboatexcursions expanded throughout watershed. Data from Rhode Island Bureau of the Census and Population Statistics. thebay to carryvisitors toshoreWnner houses andamusement parks all alongthe shore. By WorldWar II, theresort businesses of the bay During the middle part of this century, area had reached their zenith. The advent and however, the bottom fell out of the New rapid rise in popularity of trolleys and Englandtextile industry and the Providence automobiles however, pushed the ferry metropolitan area experienced a loss of servicesinto a declineas people were able to population aspeoplemoved tomore suburban make easy day trips to the ocean beaches along the south shore. In the 1970sand 1980s, development The final blow to both the resorts and alongNarragansett Bay's shorelineincreased the excursionboats was the 1938hurricane, to accommodate the influx of suburbamtes. which leveled many of the resorts and Farmandpasture lands wererapidly converted extensivelydamaged the piers where the boats into housing developments,a trend that took on passengers.Today Newportstill continuestoday. The majority of theRhode carries the flavor of a luxurious era, and is Island population chose to live within the home to the Newport Jazz Festival, the La watershed of the bay, intensifying ForgeCasino Tennis Hall of Fame,andmyriad developmentpressures on coastalresources quaint shopsand restaurants.No longer Figure 1.10!. summer cottages for millionaires, the As coastaldevelopment proceeded at mansionsare now major tourist attractions. a rapid pace, the shorelineof the bay was Oneof themajor recreationaluses of significantly altered. By 1960,the U. S.Fish NarragansettBay is for pleasureboating. and Wildlife Service Wetlands Inventory Recreational boating exceeds other uses of estimated that 50% of Rhode Island salt thebay commercialfishing and shellfishing, rnarshes40 acresor more in size had beenlost and shipping! in terms of both number of to development. people involved and economic impact Robadue and Parker, 1986!. About one- Recreation third of thestate' s population goes boating on the bay one or more times a year. Between Recreationhas long beena primary 1960and 1988,the numberof personally useof NarragansettBay. By 1865Newport owned small craft nearly tripled, increasing 10 Chapter 1

from 11,126registered boats in1960to 29,101 fisheries exist for lobster, surf clams, and boats in 1988 Willis, 1988!. The rise of conch,the most important of which at least recreationalboatingon the bay is alsoreflecte in terms of the value of the landed catch is by the fourfold increase in the number of the lobsterfishery. dockage slips: from 2,054 in 1960 to 7,344 in 1979, and to 9,772 in 1988 Collins and Shippinp Sedgwick,1979; Robadue and Parker, 1986; Willis, 1988!.Demand for boatslips is such During thecolonial period, maritime that thereis a seriousshortage of marina commercewas the driving forcebehind Rhode space. As a consequence,the number of Island'seconomy. The bayoffered excellent recreational boat moorings has increased harborsand was well situatedto supportboth 250%in thepast decade, from 1,621in 1978 international shipping and commercial to 5,659 in 1988 Collins and Sedgwick, fishing. Newportwas a majorcolonial city 1979;Willis, 1988!. andport until it wasblockaded by the British during the RevolutionaryWar. Flshltig By 1790 Providence had established itself as the major shippingport for the state Commercialand recreational fishing of RhodeIsland; but the city lostnearly all of areimportantuses of NarragansettBay. Large its internationaltrade by 1830due to warsin recreationalfisheries for bluefish, scup, Europeand pirate activity offshore. Shortly tautog, winter flounder, summer flounder, afterthe downfall of theProvidence shipping andstriped bass exist within thebay during trade,a boomin the textile industrybolstered different times of the year. Recreationalthe city's population and economic status, fisheriestend tobe seasonal, beginning during Sincethe fall of the luxurioussteamship- the winter flounder runs in the early spring ferryindustry seeprevious section!, the major and continuing until the striped bass and shippingcommodity in NarragansettBay has bluefish schoolsleave the bay region in the beenpetroleum products. latefall toearly winter. Very little recreational Shipping in Narragansett Bay fishing takesplace during the monthsof increasedsubstantially after World War II, December,January, and February. According reaching a peak in 1973 when more than to NOAA 987b!, in 1987, 1.7 million 5,000vesselsentetedthebay. Thebulkof the saltwaterrecreationalfishing trips weremade increasecan be attributedto the rising demand on the bay by 417,000people, half of whom for imported petroleumproducts. In 1977, were Rhode Island residents. 12.5million tonsof cargocame into the Port Winter flounder and hard clams are of Providence, which handled two-thirds of the most iinportant cotnmercialfisheries in thetotal inbound and outbound cargo thxough thebay, and Narragansett Bay hard clams are the bay, andof this nearly 90% consistedof knownnationwide for theirhigh quality. The petroleumproducts Robadue, 1986!. Along hard-clam quahog! fishery is currently the ProvidenceRiver at the port facilities, growing in national importanceas a major 635acies were used for importand export of supplier of clam meat, especially as waterborne commodities, and 85% of this commercial landings from New York and acreagewas devotedto petroleumhandling Florida decline Haynes, 1989!. Limited and storage Robadue,1986!. Recentlythe Profae of Narragansett Bay

Figure 1.1t Changesin the manufacturing 8 350 base in Rhode Island since $950showing a c» 300 steady growth of non-manufacturing and f 250 senfice sector employment within the state ~ 200 over time. Data taken from Rhode island StatewidePlanning and Employment Statistics. ~ 150 ~c-100 Textile manufacturing was the cE 50 o 0 single largestemployerof the work 1949 1954 1959 1964 'I969 1974 1979 force in Rhode Island for much of thelate 1800sand early 1900s.As port has experienced declining shipping late as 1950, textile manufacturing still activity dueto a trendto consolidateshipping employed 45% of the total manufacturing in big ports such as New York and Boston. work force, but by 1980this proportion had fallen to 8%. The decline of the textile Industry industry has been attributed to foreign competition, with its lure of cheaperlabor The American industrial revolution and overhead, and to the fact that southern started200 years ago with the mechanization states are comparatively nearer to raw of Slater's Mill at the falls where the products. Blackstone River empties into the Seekonk Jewelry manufacture boomed in River. By 1860 Rhode Island was the most RhodeIsland from 1940to 1970,peaked in industrialized statein the union McLoughlin, 1978,and then declined slightly so that by 1978!, and by the turn of the century 1982it madeup 24% of RhodeIsland's total Providenceboasted the world's largesttool manufacturingemployment Figure 1.12!. factory Browne and Sharpe!, file factory The decline of the jewelry manufacture Nicholson File!, engine factory Corliss businessis attributedto foreign competition Steam Engine Company!, and silverware and changesin fashionover the years. The factory Gorham!.In addition,the cityranked third raostirnportantindustry in RhodeIsland number one nationally in the production of is themetals and machine-tool industry, which woolen and worsted goods and in the recentlyhas also seen some decline, At present manufacture of jewelry Conley and tourism is the fastest-growing sector of the Campbell, 1982!. economy, ranking third behind jewelry and Until themid-1900s, the largest single health care New England Econometrics, employment sector in the state was 1988!. manufacturing Figure1.11!. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, employment in 40 ~ manufacturinghas been slowly replaced 40 358 35 30 I by employmentin wholesale/retail,health 30 care, business services, and finance and 25 25 Q. real estate. 20 15 10+ FJgwe 1.12' Recent changes and trendsin 5 the manufacturing employment sector 1050 within Rhode Island. Oata taken from New England Econometrics 988!.

Chapter 2 Bay Issues and Management: An Overview Perhapsmost importantly, increasing population growth and development throughout the watershed in thelast decade, ... threatensto onsetthe recent improvements we haveseen in theupper Bay and Providence River. Eachand every one of uswho livesin or visits the Bay and the surrounding region benefits from our proximityto NarragansettBay waters.And each and every one of us canact to ensurea healthy, prosperousfuture for the Bay.

TheNarragansett Bay Project, 1990 "Planningfor a BetterBay" Issues During the past several decades, concern over the environmental health and Comprehensive Management well-beingof NarragansettBay has increased dramatically. Newspaperreports, magazine The users interviewed for the articles, television shows, environmental Narragansett Bay Project assessrnen t advocacyandotheruser groups, governmental perceivedcurrent managementpolicies as and regulatory agencies, and the scientific inadequate to resolve conflicts over uses. community are more carefully scrutinizing Manyfelt thatthe bay is beingoverdeveloped, and reporting upon the conditions and events with environmental concerns given occurring in NarragansettBay and adjacent insufficient weight when balancedagainst coastalwaters. The scrutiny and reporting coastaldevelopment, and that management have been intense since the establishment, in of coastalareas by stateregulatory agencies 1985,of theNarragansett Bay Project,funded is short-sightedand pro-development. by theU.S. EnvironmentalProtectionAgency Bay userssaw a needfor a stronger, and the Rhode Island Department of moreunified, moreenvironmentally directed EnvironmentalManagement. management strategy and authority. As part of its five-year management However, althoughmost usersexpressed a and planning agendafor NarragansettBay, desirefor managementaimed at promoting the NarragansettBay Pmject undertookan multiple usesof the bay as a resource,each assessmentof the public perception of user group felt that its own interests problems occurring in the bay. represented the most beneficial use of the Representatives of fishing interests, bay. Theonly two pointsof consensusacross developmentinterests, marina and boating user groups were that quahogging should be interests,environmental groups, industry, and given precedenceover boating and marinas specialized groups such as scuba divers! when conflicts between these uses arise and were interviewed, and the results were that anew stateauthority should be createdto compiled in a report entitled Narragansett manage the bay for multiple use as an Bay Issue Assessment:Public Perceptions integratedentity. At present,towns direct Brown et al 1987!.The following summary coastaldevelopment, using stateregulatory is based,in part, on that report. guidelinesas well astheir own setof zoning

13 Chapter 2 ordinances.This styleof coastaldevelopment often resultsin differing patternsaf useof the Risk fram Contamlnited shorelinein townsalong the bay. Usergroups Fish and SheINIsh felt thata stateauthority shouMoverseecoastal developmentwithin thebay to ensureequitable The health risk from consuming usebetween user groups, as well asto ensure contaminated fish and shellfish was the that development is not environmentally secondmajor concernexpressed by usersof degrading. NarragansettBay, In particular,respondents were worried about contaminated shellfish Pollution illegally harvestedfrom polluted waters. Seafood consumers suggested increased All user groups except industry, enforcementpolicies to reducethe potential development firms, and marinas viewed for harvestingseafood from polluted waters. pollution of the bay as the most significant Fishermen, an the other hand, defended the problem. Definitions of pollution in the bay quality of their productsand believed that included visible trash, sewage-treatment poor careand handling of theproduct after it odors, siltation, toxic chemicals,and industrial is brought to market are responsible for discharges.Respondents feared thatpollution seafood-related illnesses. Fishermen could lead to environmental degradation, suggestedthat a bettersampling protocol be habitat destruction, diminished health of the developedtomore accuratelyevaluate human ecosystem, and restricted use of the water for health risks associated with harvested swimmingand shellfishing. Many expressed shellfish. concernabout the long-termeffects of toxic pollutants,mostof which come framindustrial Shoreline Development discharges, However, sewage treatment dischargeswere viewed asthe pollution that Many bay usersperceived shoreline most severelydegrades the useand aesthetic developmentto be aut of control in Rhode qualityof thebay, as well asproducing human Island and cited this as an exampleof the health risks associatedwith swimming, inadequacy of comprehensive bay boating,and shellfish consumption. management.The potentialfor limiting Cleanlinessof the bay wasviewed as public accessto the bay by overdevelopment a priority,especially because the bay attracts of itsshore was the most frequently mentioned touristsandbusiness,both vital to the financial concern,followed by the fear that the bay's healthof thestate. The most common opinion aesthetic appeal would decline. Bay wasthat the bay should not be usedas a waste fishermenare particularly concernedabout receptacle.Many respondents recommended the loss of coastline to developmentas it that"clean" industryanduseof the bay should pertains to loss of dock spacefor fishing be promoted in management strategies. vessels.All usergroups, marinas included, Reducingsewage input dischargeswas seen felt thatpoorly planned coastal development, as essentialto cleaningup thebay. such as that presently perceived ta be Bay Issues and Management 15 occurringin RhodeIsland, leads to increased pollution and decreasedpublic accessand Pemiittlhg Process fish stocks. All users noted a need for better managementof coastaldevelopment along A generalperception existed among Narragansett Bay. user groupsthat the permitting process for building,upgrading facilities, dredging,etc.! Enforcement Issues is inefficient. A too-broad overlap in regulatoryagency responsibilities results in a All user groups believed that permittingprocess that takes too longand is enforcementof regulationsfor boatingsafety, too complex,due to the numberof agencies fishing limitations on shellfish size, and involved.Streamlining the permitting process industrialpollutant pretreatmenttechnology was viewed as a prerequisiteto improving is inadequate. They perceived inefficient managementwithin the estuary, enforcement of minimum-size fishing regulationsas potentially damaging to future Bay Managers shellfishstocks, and fishing in pollutedwaters as a threat both to human health and to the Figure 2.1 shows the major reputation of Narragansett Bay shellfish governmental institutions in Rhode Island products. thatare presently involved with waterquality As use of the bay for recreational control in NarragansettBay. Although the boatingincreases, the potentialfor accidents figure doesnot provide detailedinformation increases.User groupswere of the opinion for the state of Massachusetts,Rhode Island that the majority of boatersusing the bay andMassachusetts are currently organizing "know absolutelynothing about boating" and joint planning committees in an effort to stressedpublic educationas away toincrease cooperate to improve water quality in boating safety awareness,etiquette, and Narragansettand Mount Hope bays. Once observance of the "rules of the road." the differences between the two states' management systems are worked out, Dredging significant progressin attaining improved water quality shouldbe possible. The disposalof dredge spoils from Historical aspectsof Governance and the dredgingof channels,harbors, marinas, water quality are reviewed in Needham and andcommercial docks was perceived to be a Robadue990! andHennessey and Robadue problemfor NarragansettBay. SinceRhode 986!. The Rhode Island Departmentof Island presentlydoes not have accessto a Environmental Management is primarily dredgespoil disposalsite either on land or at responsible for pollution abatement. It sea,no dredgingin the bay hasoccurred in a overseesthe permitting for direct discharges numberof yearsand many areasare losing of wastewaterorcooling water to thebay and waterdepth due to siltation. Usergmups saw adnunistersthe construction grants program a greatneed to study the potentialeffects of for new sewagetreatment plant facilities in dredgespoil disposal in thebay and to identify the state. a suitabledisposal area before the needfor dredging becomes critical. 16 Chapfer 2

Figure2.t AfajorRhode Island governmental institutions involved in water pollution control in Narragansett Bay. Takenfrom Needham and Robadue f990! Bay Issues and Management 17

Save The Bay- A Potent Environmental The Narragansett Bay Pioject- Advocacy Group A Major Research initiative Save The Bay, a privately funded, The NarragansettBay Project was nonprofit organization, was founded in 1970 created in 1985, under amendments to the to answer the need for a grass-rootsstatewide CleanWater Act, asa $1-million-per-year,5- organization dedicated to protecting and year study to determine the condition of maximizing the assets of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and to make greatestnaturalresource Narragansett Bay. recommendations for its management. The At present the organization boasts a projectdefinesits overallpurpose as "preserve membershipof approximately12,000people, and promote the environmentalquality of making it the largest local environmental NarragansettBay, including its biological, activist group in the nation. chemical, physical and socio-economic SaveThe Bay definesits purposeas aspects;preserve a healthyNarragansett Bay "to ensurethat the water quality of thebay is for posterityso our childrenmay enjoy some restoredand that the ecosystemof the bay, of the same benefits we have derived from the the tributariesand the wetlandsthroughout Bay." NarragansettBay Project, 1987!. the bay's drainagebasin, are protected from The intensive study phase of the the harmful effects of human activity. project beganin 1985and has proceeded for Recognizing that the quality of life in and thepast five years.The studiesperformed by around the bay is not to be jeopardizedby the NarragansettBay Projecthave been both increasingdemands that may beplaced upon numerousand diverse, covering biology and its resources, we seek carefully planned ecology of bay flora and fauna, use of bay utilization of the bay within the system's resources,and useand managementof land natural capacity to function normally and borderingthe bay. As of this writing, the Bay healthfuHy both now and in the future." Save Projecthas begun to formulate a managementThe Bay, 1988!. planfor the bay,with expectedcompletionof Save The Bay functions both as a a planfor the estuaryby Decemberof 1991. watchdog for activities and programs of After this time, the Bay Projectis fundedfor governmentand citizenry that in any way anotherfour-year period to implementand degradethe environmental quality of thebay, overseethe newlydesignedmanagement plan. basin,or watershed,and as a publicawareness Beginning in 1995,the Bay Project will be groupdedicated to educationconcerning the dissolved and the state of Rhode Island will ecology, value, and pollution problems of be responsible for maintenance of the Narragansett Bay. Save The Bay has management plan. undertakenIegalchaHenges of bothindustrial and municipalpolluters of the bay, and also producestechnical reports that investigate pollution sources,such as forcornbined sewer outflows and municipal sewagetreatment discharges.

Chapter 3

cheap alternative to expensive land The Industrial Revolutian transportation.The bay is sufficientlydeep all alongthe route from its mouth to its head The cornerstone for industrialization toallow easy navigation for even the deepest- of Providenceand the upper bay was laid on draft sailing vesselsof the day, further December 20, 1790, when Slater Mill at the increasingthe attractivenessof Providence PawtucketFalls on the Blackstone River went as an industrial site. into operation,using water to providethe With water-poweredindustry came powerto produce woven cotton cloth Conley large-scaledamming of all the tributaries andCampbell, 1982!. This eventmarked the leadinginto the head of theestuary, which beginningof the factory textile systemin createdbarriers to migrating anadromous Americaand led to therise of r'nanufacturingfishes. Industrializationnot only led to throughoutthe NarragansettBay region. changesin the landscape, asmill townsgrew Between 1790 and 1830, industrialization in aroundthe upper bay, but also started large- the Providencearea beganto replace scalepollution of thewaterways leading into commerceand tradeas the state'sleading the bay. economic activity as businessmenshifted Industrializationof the region initiated theirintereststo the developing mill industries the rapid urbanizationof land around the atthe head of thebay Conleyand Campbell, Providenceand Seekonk rivers by creatinga 1982;Hale, 1980!. largedemand for a laborforce. To provide The Narragansett Bay region cheaplabor for theirgrowing factories, leading possessescertain distinctive topographical industrialists had the port of Providence and geological features that helped declareda portof immigration.During the industrializationprogress rapidly. Early early 1800s,a greatinfiux of immigrants industryrelied heavily upon the abundantly beganto arrive at the port of Providence, fiowing freshwater at thehead of thebay to finding employmentas unskilled laborersin powermachinery and to disposeof' solvents, the prospering factories of the region. dyes,and other waste products. Unlike many Membersof the immigrant labor force were estuariesalong the piedmontplain of the typically given the most hazardousduties Atlanticseaboard, Narragansett Bay has at its andthe lowest pay of themill workers Conley heada watershedthat is characterizedby andCampbell, 1982!. As immigrantsmoved relatively steeptopography. Therefore,the into thecity, themoreaffluent Rhode Islanders rivers drop steeplyas they flow toward the began an exodus into suburbanareas, bay, with water velocities sufficient to turn converting farm and pasture lands to the water wheelsthat poweredindustrial residential use. machinery,Moreover, since theriversflowed From the time of first settlement until throughglaciated watersheds carrying little the late 1700s,the development and use of suspendedsediment load, they provided clear theNarragansett Bay area had a relatively water for washing and rinsing textiles. low environmentalimpact. But thischanged Convenientaccess to navigablewater and the dramaticallywith theadvent of theindustrial relativelyshort distance approximately 37 revolutionand the bolstering of theregion's km!from the head of theestuary to theopen population to meet the needs of watersof theAtlantic Ocean provided for a industrialization.However, little thought Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Growth and Po!/ution 21 was given to the environmentalimpact of swords, ammunition, and other articles of industrializationupon Narragansett Bay and war alsobolstered the region's metalworking its tributariesuntil the latter part of the 19th industry Conley, 1986!. Theend of theCivil century. War heralded the Gilded Age of Rhode As the population in the city of Island a period of rapid industrialization Providencegrew frorn7,614in 1800to16,832 and growth, especially in the city of in 1830, residentsdisposed of garbageand Providence,accompanied by a dramaticrise other refuse,including raw sewage,on city in untreated waste loadings to upper streetsand on the banksof rivers in theupper NarragansettBay and its tributaries. bayiIear the city. Theseunsanitary conditions At the time, diseases were believed to ledto aseverecpidcmicofcholera thatravaged be communicated through the air, as is the city of Providence in 1854 Olsen ct al,, evidencedina statementby Snow865! that 1980!. Snow's 1855 description of the "thecausesofcholeraare, first, the mysterious Moshassuck Canal, which flows into the atmospheric condition...and local conditions Providence River, as "foul smelling with of filth and impure air." Worries about hogs,dogs and cats [floating] in thewaterand cholera, typhoid fever, and other diseases largequantities of gasarising ftom decaying supposedlyspread by sewergases sparked substances" aptly depicts the general employers'concern over thepotential loss of environmentalconditions present at the head labordue to illness,forcing public officials to of the estuary, actinordcr to remedytheconditionsdescribed Epidemics of cholera and typhoid by Snow 865! in the City of Providence: becameso common and widespread that the "In many of the sultry days of July and city fatherscreated the post of Superintendent August,this filth of the streets,moistened by of Healthfor the City of Providencein 1856. the street sprinklers,and fermenting in the E.M. Snow, apublic-health leader of national vertical sun,filled manyportions of our city stature,was the first appointeeto this post. with a most nauseating and depressing His initial job was to enforce the collection atmosphere." In 1869, in responseto this and disposalof kitchen refuse and garbage concern,thecities of Providenceand Newport for the city's population,which had swelled wercempowered by law to 1aypublic drains to 47,785 more than a sixfold increase in a andsewers. The first sewersin thecity were span of 50 years Conley and Campbell, simple conduits that removed animal and 1982!. This markedthe beginning of actions humanwastes from city streetsand piped it to takento improve public healthin the heavily the bay at the nearestlocation. City streets industrializedProvidence region. were hosed down daily to move manure and The outbreak of the Civil War caused refusefrom the streetto the bay. This phase a boom in textile production, as woven of sewagetreatment cleaned up the filth that material was neededto supply the Union had previously accumulatedon city streets, troops with uniforms Conley, 1986!. Evcii and the populace was pleased with the thoughcotton suppliesfrom southernstates apparentcleanliness of their city. were curtailed during the war, textile City population growth accelerated manufacturingwasable to increase production at an even morc rapid rate than ever before: In by shifting from cotton to wool. The war, the 44-year span from 1855 to 1899, with its demandfor guns,cannon, bayonets, populationtripled, growing from 47,785 to 22 Chapter 3

FigureX7 Populationgrowth trends in the city of Providence and the bay aratershed contained in the corrected, and studies were commissioned to state of Rhode Island, Data from US Bureau of the determine ways of alleviating this ever- Census. t 990census taken frompreliminary data. growing threat. In 1879the Providence Board ~ 900 of Health sent questionnairesto medical a.800 doctorsinan attempt to mapand locatedisease g 700 sourcesand then target problem areas, In ~ 600 ~ 500 1882,431cases of typhoidfever were reported ~c400 in Providence in four consecutive weeks 5 300 Rhode Is1andBoard of Health, 1894!. In o 200 1888 Dr. C,V. Chapin, the second ~ 100 Superintendentof Health,traced an outbreak 0 1790 1840 1890 1940 1990 of typhoid in Providence to a tenementon the banks of the Pawtuxet River. The Pawtuxet 175,597 Figure 3.1!. Manufacturing was Riverhad provided the public drinking water also increasingrapidly, from two mills with supply for the city of Providencesince the 60 workers in 1850to 17 miUs with 8,249 Pettaconsettwater works pumping station workersin 1895 Conley and Campbell, openedin 1876 ProvidenceCity Engineer, 1982!. This resultedin increasinglylarge 1893!, accumulationsof sewageand tnanufacturing In 1892, European s tudies wastesalong the banks of the increasingly demonstratedthat manydiseases were carried urbanupper estuary. Banksof stinking sewage in drinking water suppliesthat were fouled lined the Seekonk River, and the water turned with sewage,and in 1894the RhodeIsland vivid hues dependingon the dye colors Board of Health suggestedthat either the dischargedeach day from the textile mills. Providence~ater supply should be moved By the late 1800s, the Rhode Island upstreamof major pollutants and filtered Board of Health considered the Seekonk and prior to distribution in Providence,or else Providencerivers a threat to public health. interceptingsewers should be constructedto Waterquality haddeteriorated to the point carry wastes to the mouth of the Pawtuxet whereit wascommonly reported that people River, downstreamof the water-supply fainted from noxiousfumes of hydrogen intakes RhodeIsland Board of Health,1894!. sulfide while crossingover the Providence A filtration plant was installed in 1895 to River. Numerousreports in local turn-of- filter theProvidence water supply prior to its the-centurynewspapers told of fetid odors, beingpumped to themetropolitan area Rhode scumon the water,fish kills, red tides,and Island Board of Health, 1905!. In order to persistentanoxic conditions all testimony better track potential public health threats, tothe filthy conditionscaused by the disposal the Rhode Island Board of Health initiated of untreatedindustrial and hurem wastesinto monthly monitoringfor contaminationof all theurban estuary, and the inadequacy of the public watersupplies exceptthe Providence sewer system. water supply, which was monitored twice Suchconditions in the portion of the monthly! Rhode Island Board of Health, bay that flowed through the heart of the 1912!.It wasnot until 1925,though, that the capitalcity especially acityenteringagilded Pawtuxet was deemed unfit for use as a age of growth and prominence had to be domestic water supply and the Scituate Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Growth and Po/lution 23

Reservoirwas constructedto provide clean to another. The generalopinion is that the drinking water for the Providence groundis too nearthe city; that the increased metropolitan area. amountof sewagepouring into the bay from The system of sewersthat drained the the city destroysthe healthof the oyster...". city and emptieddirectly into the bay two In 1898 a massive red tide and fish outfalls along India Point and five outfalls kill occurredin the upperbay region. Nixon along the Dorrance Street docks! created 989! gives an excellent account of the major water-qualityproblems in the harbor. probablereasons for this event. Evidently The city dredgedroutinely to maintain a 6 the concentrated discharge of massive meter-deepchannel along the Providence amountsof untreatedsewage at Field's Point andSeekonk rivers into theinner city harbor. producedconditions that madethe Providence In 1891,4,337 m' of sewagedeposits had to River susceptibleto nuisancealgal blooms. be dredged from around wharves and docks The algal blooms led to severely reduced in Providence ProvidenceCity Engineer, dissolved oxygen conditions in the water 1891!. In responseto the fetid conditions column,which in turn producedwidespread occurring in the harbornear the capital city, fish kills. Thestench and public-health hazard an interceptor sewersystem was proposed, posedby the decayingfish carcassescaused In 1892the city sewersystem was upgraded, widespread concern over the health of the andsewer pipes were installed along the west waterin theupper bay, and once again focused side of the river to intercept the direct attentionon the problemof sewagedisposal. dischargeof vastamounts of untreatedwastes all alongthe upperbay andtransport them to From 1900 to World War II Field's Point at the southernedge of thecity. This improved conditions in the Providence At the turn of the century, casesof River to a limited extent, but created a new set waterbornediseases such as typhoid and of problemsoutside the city limits. cholerawere decreasing, and it was believed The concentrateddischarge of large that water quality in the upper bay was volumesof untreatedwastewaterdirectly into improving even thoughboth population and the upper bay at Field's Point took its toll on industrial manufacturers along with the populations of shellfish, particularly the resultant pollutant discharges were commerciallyvaluable American oyster. In increasing. Public-health concerns shifted to the 1891Annual Reportby the RhodeIsland concentrate on bacterial contamination of Commissioners of SheUFisheries it was noted shellfish and swimining areas. In addition, that: "Great Bed [near Field's Point] was industrial pollutants, especially petroleum consideredthe best planting ground in the derivatives,emerged as a majorconcern and State,but now only a very small part of that focusedpublic attention on water quality to a groundis usedfor planting oysters. Oysters greaterdegree than ever before. The oyster plantedupon the Great Bed, before being put industry had grown rapidly to become a upon the market, are taken up and planted prominenteconomicentityin thestate and an furtherdown thebay, in orderto perfectthem importantand vocal political lobby for water- for sale. The reason of this failure is difficult quality improvement. for us to explain, Some experienced By 1900, 40% of the state's entire oystermen attribute it to one causeand some population resided in Providence, which Chapter 3 ranked 20th in size nationwide with 175,597 a model for other cities. With the addition of people Conley, 1986!, and the number of lime, the 30-million-gallon-per-day MGD! people living within the watershed had plant chemicallyprecipitated out solids and reached 837,170 half the 1980 level see discharged the treated wastewater on ebb Figure 3.1!. The Seekonk and Providence tide. At first the solids were used as fill rivers were still being used as convenient amundthe facility, and later they were pressed sitesfor themass disposal of bothhuman and into cakes and transported to the Public industrial wastes,with an estimated 6 miUion Dumping Ground, just south of Prudence gallons of manufacturingrefuse and 50,000 Islandin theEast Passage, for disposal Figure poundsof greasebeing dumped into theriver 3.2!. each day Olsen et al., 1980!. Although by the early 1900swater In responseto thedegradation caused qualitydegradation had begun ta seriously affect the upperbay, industrial barons were now shifting their concernsaway from employee health and towaxdthe needfor pure water to produce steamfor the steam engines which had nearly replaced water- poweredmachinery. Coal had now becomeanitnportant fuel source, and coal gasificationresidues and oil beganto work their way into the upper bay from directdischargesand Ffycue$.2 Locationand extentof the sewagesludge tank leaks. d sttosaisite in NanttgansettBay. R/GIS 990!. Petroleum derivatives had now enteredthe listof NarragansettBay pollutants, by theuntreated sewage discharged at Field's becomingso widespread that the 1905Report Point,the City Engineerwas sent to Europe of the Commissioners of Shell Fisheries to studystate-of-the-art sewage treatment reported a large number of oystermen and design a treatmentfacility for the city. complainingof oysterstainted with gas,a By 1910anewchemical- precipitation sewage seriousthreat to the marketability of their treatmentplant was operating atField'sPouit. product.The Board of HealthAnnual Report Atthe timeit was the largest treatment facility of the sameyear 905! confirmed that the of its kind in thecountry and was considered esteemedpurity of theNarragansett Bay oyster Providence and Beekonk Rivers: Growth and Poilution 25 was in jeopardy: "What was once a reliable becoming the largest and most important and safe food is now an absolute souxce of fishery in the bay in terms of both pounds danger. If perchancethey [oysters] have landedand dollars generated. beentaken froxn the bedsin the upperriver, In 1910 the Oyster Growers they are less liable to produce gastric Associationof RhodeIsland filed suit against disturbances,for the odor of gas pexmeates the state of Rhode Island for pollution of the mass which should be redolent with the public waters with "sewageand dredgings saltyodors of the ocean,and they arepushed [sludge cake] and other substances," and asidein disgust." It was also fearedthat the noted, "There is a continuance of the oily film on the waters of the Providence prosperity of this industry, although many River was reducing aeration of the water things havearisen which might be injurious columnand potentially reducing populations to the same,particularly the pollution of the of diatoms and other foods for shellfish. A tide waters of the State" Rhode Island 1906 report by G.W. Field to the Shell Coxnmissionerof Shell Fisheries,1911!, Fisheries Commission stated: "We find that In response to the suit, the this watercontains in solutionand suspension Caxnmissioners of Shell Fisheries took two at least660 partsper million of the tarry and actions.First, they requested that the treatment oily matters which we have found to be facility at Field' s Pointbegin chlorination of directly and indirectly injurious to shellfish sewagewith bleachingpowder to disinfect in the manner detailed below. It is certain that the effluent Rhode Island Boaxd of Health, theabove described substances are at present 1910!, Althoughbleaching reduced E. coli in entering the bay in sufficient quantities to the plant effluent by 97%, it apparentlyhad seriouslyinjure the growthof shellfish thxough little effect on total bacterial content of the the destructionof their food supply, and at waters of the Providence River because of times even to kill the oysters" Formal suit otherpollutant sources.Shellfish-bedclosuxes was filed by the oystermen against the were comxnon in the Providence and Seekonk ProvidenceGas Corporation, which did not rivers during suxnmermonths, but the beds contendthe case,paid fines on two separate wereusually reopened in winter whenbacteria charges,and reportedly rectified the problem levels decreased. by locating wastes where they would not Second, the Commissioners of Shell leachinto theestuaxy. Fisheriesrequested a study of the effect of Bacterialcontamination ofbay waters tidal currentson thetransportation of sewage and shellfish bedsalso emerged as a water- and other pollutants in NarragansettBay. quality issue. In 1905it was found thatB. coli Sarle 911! conducted the first impact Bacterium coli; old name for Escherichia assessxnentfor the bay. Basedupon these coli!, a bacterialindicatorof sewage pollution, studies,he concluded that thedumping ground couldbe found in oystersthxee-quarters of a for sewagesludge should be movedoutside mile southof the txeatmentfacility at Field's of thebay, and that sludgeshould bc dumped Point andasurfacepollution slick wasevidenton the ebb tide to ensure that it would not a full six miles south of the plant site!. travel backinto the bayand affect theoyster- Pollution in the upperbay was perceived as a gxowinggrounds. His recommendationswere serious threat to the future of the oyster not ixnmediatelyheeded, and sewagesludge industry, which had grown to the point of cakecontinued to bedumped at the site until Chapter 3

Figure 3.3 Metric tons of sewagesiudge dumped in proof a duty that had previously been NarragansettBay south of PrudenceIsland . Years with missing data indicate that sewage sludge was performedby the state itself' was tobe placed dischargeddirectly o the bay during that time Worfd upon the plaintiff, Wars I 8 II; The Great Depression!. Data taken from The Providence region continued to Providence City Engineer Annual Reports. prosper and grow at a rapid pace, and by 1919, 252 miles of sewer drains were in operation on the east side of Providence, carrying wastes that were once directly E25 dischargedalong the Seekonk and Providence rivers to the facility at Field's Point for ~2O treatinent Figure 3.4!. During World War I

~15 a shortage of lime disrupted the use of CO chemicalprecipitation at the facility, From o 1P 1918 to 1921 effluent was discharged with no t- 5 treatment other than chlorine, which was also in short supply as a result of demandsin p support of the war effort, As Figure 3.3 shows, the production of sludge stopped during the period of World War I. In response to the constant water- 1949 Figure3,3!, although dumping of sludge quality crisis in the upper bay after World on the ebbtide did begina fewyears after his War I, an act was passedthat prohibited any report. pollution of the watersof the stateof Rhode In 1912 the state ruled on the Island. It also created the Board of Purification oystermen'ssuit. Despitethe largerevenue of Waters, which was mandated to regulate producedfor thestate by theleasing of oyster- pollution enteringthe bay and its tributaries growing acreage $135,000 in 1912!,and the Rhode Island Board of Purification of Waters, political clout carriedby theOyster Growers' 1921!. When the war was over and the Association, the state ruled that, although treatment facility went back into full pollution from treatinent plants and the operation,there were reports that dissolved dumping of sewage sludge was indeed oxygen levels in the ProvidenceRiver were occurring,it wasnot at harmful levels. It also improving and that fish that had not been ruled that in suchcases the burden of gathering notedin the areafor 10 yearshad returned to

3.0x109

I 2.5x10 Figure 3.4 Increase in the ! 250 extent of sewer lines in the city 2.0x10 Q of Providence and discharge o Lo 150 1.5x10 flow from the STP at Fiefds Point since 1870, Oata from I 100 1.0x10~~ Nixon 990! and NPDES permit records, 50 S.ox10' 0 D,Dx1D 1870 1885 19DD 1915 1930 1945 1960 Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Growth and Po lution 27 the upperbay and ProvidenceRiver Rhode approvedby the state to begin the actual Island Commissioner of Shell Fisheries, upgradework, In 1933 the Metropolitan 1922!. It wasalso noted that theever-present SewerDistrict proposedrunning a pipeline Providence River oil slick was growing from Providence to Prudence Island, where smallerandless prominent, and that in general the dischargepoint for all sewageeffluent waterquahtywas improvingin the Providence would be located, thus cleaning up the River and upper bay. Although the exact Providence and Seekonk rivers. The Board causesfor this irnprovernentin waterquality of Purificationof Watersopposed the matter, conditions were not noted by the asdid fishermen, because of the costs involved Cornrnissioners of Shell Fisheries, the work and the potential adverseimpact this would of the Board of Purification of Waters was have upon the fisheries located in the lower credited. bay Rhode Island Departmentof Health, In otherareas, however, waterquality 1934!. was deteriorating. In 1922, the Board of By 1930textile manufacturingin New Purification of Waters reported that the Englandwas experiencinga majorslump, SeekonkRiver was anoxic on the bottom, down two-thirds from 1923 levels and particularlyin regionsnear sewage discharge employingonly 12,000workers Figure3.5!. sites,and that the Moshassuck was completely With thedecrease in textile productioncarne devoid of oxygen at its mouth. Providence an increasein othermanufacturing industries River bottomwaters were generaUy less than suchas metals processing, jewelryproduction, 10% saturated. At the time it was considered andpetroleum processing. But thisindustrial that oxygen saturation of less than 50% growth did not pick up the slack from the indicated undesirable conditions. textilesdecline. During theGreat Depression A series of remedies to quickly 930 1940!,the area'spopulation grew by improve conditionswere proposed. In 1925 only 2.4% and employment in the textile the Board of Purification of Waters declared industryfell to its lowestpoint. To addinsult the treatmentplant at Field's Point obsolete, to injury, the 1938 hurricane wreaked havoc and in 1926 plans were made to convert the in the Providencearea, destroying many plant to an activatedsludge process,but it homesand businesses and further depressing was not until 1929 that a $1-million loan was an already ailing economy. Rhode Island I experienced an economic slowdown that 2O CottonQrtnttlno States persisted until the Second World War,

co qg World War II ended the dismal prospectsof theGreat Depression, bolstering $io the regionaleconomy by providing large numbersof jobs in supportof the war effort. During the war years, manufacturing and metal-processing industries boomed in the 5 1880 1910 1925 1' 1955 1970 Providenceregion as manufacturingrallied to supply the military with the goods and Flare XS Therise and fall of the NewEngland textile industryusing numbers of active spindlesas a proxyto weaponsneeded to maintain Allied troops. changesin theindbstry. Data from Dunweit978!, Concernfor waterquality in the Seekonkand Providencerivers was minor comparedto 28 Chapter 3

10 8 ~ Ienam g Surface IR,'

1910 1915 1923 1930 1940 1947 1955 1959 1955 1975 1953 1995 Figure38 Summerdissolved oxygenconcentrationsin theSeakonk River as measured Oyvarious researchers atvenous times throughout the1900s, suggesting anoxia!hypoxia weremost prevalent during the 1930s and 1940s.Data from Sweet 915!; Rl Dept. of Health 923, 1947,1956!; US Anny Corp Engineers 959!; Nixon unpubleheddata!; Doering et al 988!.

worries over the war, and water-quality In 1946,when the entireupper bay degradationwas widespread. Despiteits wasclosed to shellfishingbecauseofbacterial upgradein 1936 to 50-MGD capacityand contamination,the plight of NarragansettBay activatedsludge processing, the treatmentbecame a priority for all Rhode Island facilityatField'sPointreverted todischarging residents.This eventjolted RhodeIslanders untreated sewage into the Providence River into an unrelentingbattle against pollution in when workers and materials were diverted to NarragansettBay, which had alwaysbeen the war effort seeFigure 3.3!, All therivers viewedas producing the nation's finest oysters flowing into thc urbanestuary at the headof and hard clams. thebay were considered fouled and polluted. In the sumrnerof 1947,bottom waters During the summermonths, nearly all bay were anoxic and surfacewaters hypoxic the tributaries were referred to as offensive to entirelength of the SeekonkRiver Figure both sight and smell, and oil slicks and solids 3,6!. As publicscrutiny of waterquality in wereonce again a commonsight on thewater the bay increased,and industry was slow to surface.Further cleanup of the upperbay respond, the voice of the public became was ignored in the face of war. increasingly clear to elected officials and improvementsin wastewaterdischarges were begunin earnest. From the Postwar Era to 1970 The 1950s marked a decade of constructionof municipalprimary sewage The postwarera, with its increasein treatment facilities. In 1947 the Blackstone leisure time for the working class, brought Valley District Commission BVDC!, the increaseduse of the bay as a playground state'sfirst regionalsewer authority, was along with greaterenvironmental scrutiny formed,and bond issues were passed to begin and awareness. This new environmental constructionof a treatmentplant at Bucklin awarenessled to calls for betterpollution Point on the Seekonk River. The East abatementto protectand enhance the purity Providencesewage treatment facility began of the waters that were a common resource. operationin 1950,and the 8 VDCfacility at Constructionof aninterstate highway Bucklin Point went on line in 1952. In 1956 systemreduced travel time to major cities the MoshassuckValley was tied in to the andpopulation density incrca!Od markedly BVDC treatmentplant and in 1957Central in suburbanregions at the headof thebay, Falls, Valley Falls, and Lonsdalewere also Populationdensity in Providencerose to 21 added RhodeIsland Departmentof Health, personsper acreby 1940. 1956 and 1957!. In the mid-1950s it was Providence and 8eekonk Rivers: Growth and Po/lution 29

determinedby the RhodeIsland Department bay continued to grow, with local groups of Health and the City Engineer that the forming to cornbat potentially degrading facility at Field's Point was working at only construction and changes in land use. 43% efficiency in removal of biochemical Ironically, it was as early as 1922 that the oxygen demand BOD! 85 95% removal Annual Report of the Comirussionersof Shell was considered normal!, and it was Fisheries noted the problem of one state recommendedthat theplant be upgradedto a attempting to clean up its waters while secondarytreatment phase. This work was neighboring states do not, and stated that completed in the late 1950s. federal control would be "absolutely In the early 1960s,as federalmoney necessary" to attain water quality becameavailable for pollution conirol, many improvementsin bodiesof watershared by Rhode Island cities with older sewage more than one state. However, it was not treatmentplantstookadvantageof the funding until 50 years later, when the federal to construct or upgrade wastewater treatment governmentbecameinvolved in waterquality facilities. At this time citieswere responsible through the enactment of the Clean Water for their own wastewater treatment and Actof 1972,that a focusedand better-planned discharges;there was no regionalgoverning approachto water-qualitycontro1 carne into body. Pollution control was therefore place. The period from 1970to the present somewhatscattered, as each city did asit saw has brought a greater impetus for fit, when it saw fit. Yet, despitethe helter- comprehensiveplanning, policy, research, skelternature of regulationand planning, andcooperation on local,regional, state, and water quality continuedto improve, due in federallevels as the valueof the bay as a partto decliningtextile manufacturingand in public recreationalresource has grown. part to federal funding for wastewater During the 1970spopulation densities treatment.Construction of a largenumber of in urbanareas around the bay beganeither to new sewagetreatment facilities, upgrading stabilizeor to decreaseslightly see Figure of many existing ones, and a continuing 3.1!. This changewas mainly a resultof the declinein bay-basedmanufacturing vastly deactivationof Navy installations that had improved water quality in the upper bay been establishedduring World War II in duringthe 1960s. Fish were reported in good Newport,Middletown, and North Kingstown. numbers in the Providence River, and During deactivation, an estimated 20,000 dissolved oxygen in the Seekonk River Navy personnelleft the stateof RhodeIsland exceededlevels observedin the early 1900s Conley, 1986!. Despite the trend of Figure 3.6!. decreasingpopulationdensity in urbanareas, thenumberof new housing units in thecoastal From 1970 to the Present regionexpandeddramatically. Between 1970 and 1980, the overall state population As bay conditions improved, the decreased5%, while housing units grew political atmospherebecame more charged 12.4%, from 217,706 to 244,721, with two- as cities quibbled over who wasresponsible thirds of thoseunits beinglocated in coastal for what pollution and who should be census tracts. As new population centers responsiblefor its deanup. Public awareness arosealong many af the smallercoves and of andconcern for the quality of waterin the inletsthmughout the bay, local waterquality 30 Chapter 3

was affected by runoff, sewageinputs, and BVDC treatmentplant. The facility was poor land-useplanning. upgradedto secondarytreatment in 1972, 1972 brought the enactment of the with a resultant 60% increase in removal of Federal Clean Water Act, which mandated BOD from its effluent, In 1976 the East that dischargeconcentrations comply with Providencemunicipal treatment facility was levels set by the federal government. With upgradedto secondarytreatment and 70 the passageof this act, wastewatertreatment 75% of total BOD was removed from became,in essence,the responsibility of the discharge waters. federalgovernment, in tetmsboth of funding The efficiency of the treatment and of enforcing compliance. The single, processat the Field's Point facility declined centralizedauthority required to bring about rapidly after 1975 Figure 3.7!. In 1977the true control over pollution dischargesand EPA filed suit againstthe city of Providence cleanupwas now in place. for poorfunctioning of thetreatment plant at In 1974 the EPA estimated that $L4 Field'sPoint and EPA ordered that required billion would be needed to clean up repairsbe madeto the plant. In 1978,before NarragansettBay to meet the goals of the theEPA- mandatedrepairs were made, the 1972 Clean Water Act Lee, 1986b!, The plantat Field's Point broke down completely, Blackstone River, originating in andwas pumping sewage, untreated except Massachusettsand a majortributary to the for chlorination, into the Providence River PiovidenceRiver estuary,was degraded to for nearlytwo years. Improvementsthat had the point that its waters were deemedunfit for beenmade in waterquality of theupper bay any recreational or industrial use other than priorto thebreakdown were lost during this power generation Mass. Dept. Env. Qual. periodof discharge.It hastaken a numberof Eng., 1975!. The Blackstone River therefore yearsto regainthe level of waterquality that would requiremajor work and fundingto existed before the breakdown of the treatment meet EPA standards. plant. In 1980the BOD loadingsproduced Pollution control continued in 1973 by the plant at Field's Point wereback to the and 1974with the tie-in of EastCumberland, levelof 20,500kg/day that had been achieved East Smithfield, and West Lincoln to the in the 1970sprior to the breakdown Lee, 1986a!.The Narragansett Bay Commission NBC! tookoverthe operationof the treatment ia79 plant at Field's Point from the city of 1978 Providence in 1980 and has since worked 1977 diligently to improve the quality of the Year s976 dischargesfrom the plant. One major 1975 accomplishment was to implement iar4 pretreatmentof industrialwastes entering the save0 20 N 6010 f00 facility, resultingin significantlyreduced metal loadings into the bay since 1983 Percent TSS Removal Hoffman, 1988!. Ryunr *7 E@eiencyof the removalof solidsfor the STP at Field'sPoint prior to breakdownin 197tt. ~ By 1980progress had beenmade in rapfdloss of plant effiofencyawid have warnedof the cleaningup theBlackstone River, but many impendingbreakdown. Oata fern plantoperations areas still did not meet their assigned records. Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Growth and Pollution 31

~60 f50 40 Figure X8 Trendsin funding sources for the construction andimprovement ce 30 of wastewater treatment facilities in ,y 20 the state of Rhode Island,indicating 110 the loss of funding over time. Data 0 fromRI Dept.Environ. Management; f990 funding is estimated.

classification due to the large number of Some of the permanently closed municipal and industrial treatment plants sheUfishbeds in theupper bay are now opened discharginginto the river Mass,Dept. Env. on a conditional basis conditional areasare Qual. Eng,, 1980!, During dry weather low closed only following periods of heavy flow! periods, treatmentfacility discharges rainfall, which meansthat on averagethey often exceed freshwater flow, seriously areclosed 200days per year! RIDEM, 1986!. degrading water quality Mass. Dept. Env. This indicates that water quality, at least in Qual. Eng1984!. McGinn 981! found regard to bacterial contamination, is that sedimentsin the river were severely improving in the upper bay, Recentstudies contaminatedwith heavyrneta1s, to the point of clam tissues show evidence of of affecting the fisheries of these waters. contamination with heavy metals, but no As sewage treatment plants are concentrations exceeding the U.S. Food and continually upgraded, and industrial sources Drug Administration's danger alert levels monitoredand policed, water quality in the were found Narragansett Times, 1988!, Providence River has continually showed Despitetremendous improvements in overall improvement. In 1986 it was estimated that waterquality in NarragansettBay in thepast 94% of Rhode Island's tidal waters were of 25 years,concern about future improvements fishable/swirnmablequahty RIDEM, 1986!. to water quality grows as federal funding Recent studies funded by the Narragansett dries up Figure 3.8!. New treatment-plant Bay Projectshow that waterquality in thebay construction and improved treatment of continuesto improve,but problemareas still industrial and municipal wastewater exist that need to be addressed and worked on discharges to the Blackstone River wiH be seeChapter 2!. For example,the Blackstone slow to come about without the assistance of River continues to be a major source of federal funding. Without continued federal pollutants entering the Seekonk River, most funding, it is questionable whether stateswill of thesepollutants originate in Massachusetts be able to maintain present water quality Quinn, 1988}. standards,much less improve upon them.

Chapter 4 Trends in Water Quality in Upper Narragansett Bay: Providence and Seekonk Rivers

Atwell,who prcst'dad as betemaster at theshore dinner hall atField's Point! from 1887to 1910,raised this tradittonal New Eng andmeal to thcstatus of a feast.For jifiy centsthe colonelprovided chowder, clam cakes, bahed fish, oysterspicltcd just onshore.steamers, watermelon,and other side dishes. For anextra quarter hc thrnv in a "goodsized" obstcr,

Conleyand Campbell, 19S2 From "Providence;A Pic toral History"

The Providence and Seekonk rivers Itis diKcult todocumcntwaterquality constitutethe region of NarragansettBay that trends in thc upper bay becausethere has has historically beensubjected to the worst been virtually no continuousmonitoring water quality problems. This region at thc programnear the urban portionof theestuary. headof the estuaryis narrow and restricted, Neither the state nor thc various research and major discharges of the nature and institutions in the bay have regularly quantity received during early monitored either dischargesor rccciving- industrializationwere simply more thancouLd waterquality in theProvidencc and Seekonk be assimilatedby or effectively flushedfrom rivers for parametersother than bacteria. thesebodies of water. The consequencesof During the early 1900s, monitoring was these loadings varied from aesthetically conductedby both the stateand the city and nauseatingcondition~uch aswindrows of included surveysof bacteriaby the Stateof raw sewagelining riverbanks,noxious fumes RhodeIsland Department of Healthand daily arisinghorn thewater, extensive anoxia, fish tidal records which have beenlost! kept by kills, algal blooms, water coloration fmm the Providence City Engineer. Since the textile-dyeing operations,and oil slicks on 1950s, the Department of Environmental the water surface to more serious threats Management has continually monitored such as waterborne diseases, contaminated bacteria at a number of stations in the drinking water, and poisoning of shellfish conditionally opened shellfish area between stocksinhabiting the upper bay. Prudence bland and Cominicut Point. Early water quality problemsarose Fortunately,overtime there have been from massive amounts of untreated mdustrial enough studies of various problems by andmunicipal wastes discharged directly into different researchersto make it possibleto the estuary. AAer World War II, aspublicly piece togcthcr evidence of trends in water owned wastewater treatment facilities werc quality in the upper bay. This data base constructedand manufacturingdeclined, it includessuch disparate but valuableworks as appearsthat waterquality beganto improve a baywidesurvey of dissolvedoxygen by the in the headof the estuary. U.S. Army Corps of Engineersin the late

Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Water Quality Trends 35

Rgure 4.1 Locationsof municipalwastewater discharge sources and combinedsewer overflowsin the Provtdenceand Seekonk Rivers. Size of sourceindicators does not correlate to dischargevolumes, which are listedon the mapfor each facilitY. Date from REGIS f 990!. Chapter 4

treatmentwork POTW! facilities presently Anothersource of BOD to theupper dischargeeffluent containing a BOD load bayis industrialdischarge. The majority of into the Providencc and Seekonk rivers. The industries discharge their wastes into NarragansettBay Commission NBC!facility municipalwastewater treatment systems, and at Field's Point contributes 37% of the total many of these wastes have undergone POTW-associatedBOD load average pretreatment prior to entering the sewer discharge52.5 MGD!; the Blackstone Valley system. This portion of the industrial BOD District Commission BVDC! facility load is incorporatedinto the estimatedBOD contributes60% duc tohighcr concentrations for sewage treatment facilities. Sotne in the dischargeeNuent, 6.5 MGD!; and industrialplants continue to discharge directly thc East Providencefacility contributes3% into thc Providenceand Scckonkrivers, and .4 MGD!. Thetotal present BOD loading these loadings are summed from NPDES from thesethree facilities averages3,199 permitsand entered as "industry" in Table metric tons/year,or 18% of the total BOD 4.1, Overall, industry's BOD contributionto load to the bay. the upper bay is relatively minor when Combined seweroverflows CSOs! comparedto riverineand municipal sources. havebeen presumed to contribute significant amounts of BOD to thc Providence and SOD Loading Scckonkrivers. During periodsof heavy rainfall, stormwaterinput to the sewage Given the steadyincrease with time treatment facilities could exceed functional of the populationwithin the bay drainage capacity, but the excess stormwater is basin, it would be reasonable to assumethat removedvia CSOsdischarging dixectly into BOD loadingswould also be increasing. the estuary. The contribution of untreated However,analysis of monthlymeasurements wastes by thc CSOs in Providence has been of flow and BOD concentration recorded at deterinined to be .635 metric tons/year eachof themunicipal trcatmcntplantsdirectly Metcalf and Eddy, 199G!,rivaling that on the Providence and Seekonk Rivers since contributedby industry, but only contributing monitoringbegan in the 1950s,indicates that 4% of thetotal BOD loadto the bay Table BODhasdccreaseddntnaticaQy Figurc4.2!. 4,1!. Wastewaterstudies currently under Moreover,there is strongevidence that the way will beused tocalibratccomputcrmodcls policics of the 1972 Clean Water Act and in orderto setprioriticsfor treatmentofCSOs consequentconversion of the BVDC facility dischargingto the ProvidenceRiver. to secondarytreatment effectively reduced

Ffpwa42 Trends in80D loading to upper 1600 Narragansett 8' from municipal anct industrial sources. Numbers ol' persons entployed at industry ehloh dlschaqpea a 800 load may indioste trends in industrial BOD discharges prior to Inonitwiry recenS begun in 1$78. Data born NPDES 0 0 1847 1$53 1$8$1$88 1$71 1877 1883 1$8$ rearms and US Census data ProvIdence and Seekonk R vers: Water QuaIIty Trends 37

800 TSS 10000 90 5 8ooO 80 c 7000 70 g 8OOO 60 50 o 4ooo 40 3000 30 2000 20 1000 100 ~10000 O aaOO 90 80 70 f 6ooo 60 5000 50 4000 40 30 g 2000 20 1000 10 0 600

500 90 80 o 400 70 60 300 50 200 40 30 gj 100 20 10 0 1950 1980 1970 1980 1990 1950 1980 1970 1980 1990 % Removal Loadlnl tnetrlctone/year!

Flexure4$ Trendsin BCNand TSSioadinrt and equi'ciwxy of removal i'or the 3 majormuniojpal point sources in oper NarragansettBey. Satsein thedata indioatea no dateavsikNe or mbsingdata Datefrom NPDES Aicorrts'. thesewage~vedBODloadingtotheupper An equivalenttime series is not bay, which hasdecreased by a factorof 3 availablc for establishingtrends in total Figure4.2!. With thc exceptionof thc total rivcrincBOD loadings, but it is assumedthat breakdownof thefacility at Field'sPoint in loadings&omthissourcehavealsodecreascd thelate 1970s, each of thcsewage plants has overtime, reflecting downward trends in achieved80-90% efficienc of removalof industrialdischarges and the conversion of BODinreccntycars Figure4.3!.WeBVDCmunicipal sewagetreatment plants to facility hashowever shown a steadydecline secondarytreatment. in efficiency over the past 2-3 years. Dataare available to assessthe BOD Efficiency of removalof total suspendedloadcontributed by thoseindustries that are solidsat the Providenccfacility hasbeen requiredto haveapproved NPDES permit high,which couldbe attributed to takeover of levelsfor their discharges. Figure 4,2 shows facility operationsby the NarmgansettBay thetotal BOD loadcontributed by permitted Comnission in 1980. industries between l976 and 1984, Thc 38 Chapter 4

Table 4.2 Studies conducted in the Provklence and Seekonk riversthat havemeasured dissolved oxygen concentrations. DissolvedOxygen Concentrltlons Year Author Sites 1913 Sweet Seekonk R. Dissolved oxygen 1918 RI Comm. Shellf, Providence R. 1923 RIDOH Seekonk a Providence R concentrations are a generally 1933 RIDOH Providence R. acceptedindicator of the overaQhealth 1947 RIDOH Seekonk R. 1955 RIDOH Providence R. of a bodyof water, at leastin regard 1956 RIDOH Seekonk R. to its ability to sustainaquatic life, 1959 USACE Seekonk a Providence R 1971 RIGOH Seekonk 8 Providence R Observed dissolved oxygen 1980 MERL Providence R. 1982/83 NIxon Seekonk & Providence R concentrationscan thereforeprovide 1987 Doeringet al. Seekonk a Providence R a relative estimate of the BOD load experiencedby a water body over long spansof time. Fortunately,the Winkler method for measuring magnitudeof BOD loadingfrom industryis dissolvedoxygen has been the standardsince small comparedto thatfrom POTWs,and has the late 1800s, and consequently decreasedsteadily since 1976. There are measurementsof dissolvedoxygen provide severalplausible causesfor this trend: l! someof the most reliable and long-term The manufacturing base around the upper recordsof trendsin estuarinewater quality. bay hasbeen declining steadilyas industries Table4.2 lists the major studies in theupper moveout of theregion; ! A greaternumber bay that have recordeddissolved oxygen of industrieshave tied in to thc municipal concentrations,and are usedherc to develop treatmentsystem and areno longerincluded trends in dissolved oxygen concentrations in thediiect-dischargecategory; ! A greater over time in thc upper bay. numberof industriesare actively pretreating Descriptions in the late 1800s of fish their wastewater.Since there are no long- kills,offensive miasmas rising from the sludge termrecordsofindustrialdischargcsavailable, depositson thc banksof the Seekonk,and U.S. Censusstatistics on manufacturing manypipes discharging refuse directly from employmcnt are used here as an indicator of theriver bankswould indicate that hypoxia industrialactivity and thc patternsof BOD low dissolvedoxygen! was a problembefore discharge by industry. The number of the turn of thc century, interestingly,surface employees in manufacturing processes dissolved oxygen concentrations in the associatedwith high BOD loadsis shownin Providcncc and Seekonk rivers remained Figure 4.2, and reflects a steadydecline for abovecritical values.0 ppm! for much of the past40 years. theearly part of the20th centuxy. Dissolved No time-series data ate available from oxygen content of surface waters dcclincd whichto assesslong-term trends in nonpoint ftom concentrationsnear 7 ppm in 1913 dischargesor CSOsto NarragansettBay. Sweet,1915! tohypoxic levels for nearlythe Prov!dence and Seekonk Rivers: Water Quality Trends 39

Fi'g4rre 44 Trends in summer time dissolved oxygen concentrations in the Seekonk River be- tween 19 13 and 1987in both surface and bottom 9876 6 waters. Thegraphs Indlcote that improvements haveocouned since the mid 1950s,espeotally in surf~ water, while bottom waters show no 4 improvement since 19tts. Data from RIDOH 1929, 1947, 1958;Sweet 1915; US ACE 1959; E 3Q Doeringet al. 1988. CL 2 t f of wartime production demands and growth of surroundingurban population during the 1940s. No sewagetreatment 067 6 plantswere in operationon the Seekonk until 1952, when a regional sewage I' treatmentfacility wasput into operation 4 at Bucklin Point BVDC!. By 1956 CI2 summer surface dissolved oxygen concentrationshad improved, and by 1959 even bottom-water dissolved 0 ,9>s <92s sss,ass,ssr oxygen had improved from anoxic to g aoaonsr,eros g e~ew~ g hypoxic Figures4.4 and 4.5!. Summertime dissolved oxygen entitelengthofthewaterbodyin1947 Figure concentrationshave increasedwith time in 4.4!.Unfortunately, Sweet did not measure thc Providence River Figurc 4.5!. Although bottomwaters,butbyl947,andforadecade the available data suggest that worst case thereafter, bottom waters werenearly anoxic all along the Scehunkandforadistance 7 km downbay Figures4.4 and 4.5!. The drastic decline in surfacedissolved oxygen 4 concentrations after 1923 can 2 be attributed to increased industrializarion as a result g6

Rgtrre 4$ DcNvnbaytrends for summertime worstoase!dissotved 3 oxygen concentrations In the Seekonk and Providence Rivers during 9 sampling events since 1947, showing improvementsin concentrates wkh distanceherrr 0 the head ofthe SeekonkNver, and improvemenlsoverdm* Oata from à 4 R R R $ R s ~e I RIDOH 1S47,1955; Doenng et aL 1988. KilometersOownbey

e AGOH1' ~ RnOH1$% v OoIrhga al, 1047 40 Chapter 4

conditionsin the Providencc River were better ScekonkRiver was the completionof the than in the SeekonkRiver, dissolvedoxygen BVDCfacility andits subsequentupgrade in in bottom water was below 3.0 ppm from the l970s to secondarytreatment. The drastic India Point to near Conimicut Point in 1987. reductionin BODload brought about by the Summertimedissolved oxygen distributions BVDC treatmentplant greatly improved in the Providence River show a distinct conditionsat thehead of theestuary, and is gradient of increasing concentration with clearly scenin Figurc 4.2 with thedecrease in distancedown the estuarytoward the more BOD loading between1972 and 1973, openwaters of the upperbay. Reductionof BOD loading occuxred Nutrients after 1970 as new treatment plants were constructedand improvements were made in Sources of Nutrients plantefficiency, to thepoint where by 1983 dissolvedoxygen concentrations were equal Sources of nutrients to the Providence to thoseobserved in 1913 Figure 4,4!. This andScekonk rivets are municipal wastewater increasein dissolvedoxygen concentrations treatmentfacilitics, rivers,precipitation, and can be attributedto a lossof industry in th'e influx from offshorewaters. A present-day Providencearea following World War II, tallyforinputsofdissolvedinorganic nitrogen, additionalsewage treatment facilities being phosphate,and silicateis given in Table43. put into operation,and a leveling off of Theseare the nutricnts available for uptake populationgrowth in the city of Providence by phytoplankton,and thereforethey are of after 1950. Of particular importancein the importance to those concerned about eutrophicationof the bay. Tabte4.3 Preaent-dayeorrrcea and toadinyafar nutrJanteinupper NarragansettBay Pnwidiece Earlier studies suggestedthat the and Seeironk nrrere!. majorproportion of totalphosphorusloading NutrientLoading rnrnol/m'! tothe bay came from sewage plant discharges 0% morcthan ftom riverine sources!,while Source DIN DIP Silicate' riverswere the major soutce for nitrogenand POTWa' silica Olsenand Lee,1979; Nixon andPilson, NBC 2613 72 ? BVDC 871 91 ? 1984!. However, mote recent data collected E. Providence 442 27 ? by Nixon in prep.!indicate thatrivers are the Total 392$ 190 2$$ major sourcefor all nutricnts arriving at the Rlvara' head of the estuary. The upper bay Blackstone 4004 113 ? consequentlyprovidesthe greatest storehouse Pawtuxet 19$3 1BIB Moehaeeuck 140 3 of nutrients,mainly duc to riverineinputs. Woonaequatucket 273 7 Total $3$0 30$ $$0 Nuttfsnt Loading

TOTAL LOAD 10,3078$4$$4 1,11$ No long-term monitoring of either nutrient loadingsor nutrient concentrations Fromallen and Lee, 1979 r FrolrrNixon, in pNp. in receivingwater has been conducted. Thus ' FromNixon end Risen, 1Ml. Nore:prorared ior a long-term trends in nutrient loading to the eurfece ace of 24 krnr. headof theestuary can only be inferredfrom Prov]denceand SeekonkRivers: WaterQuality Trends 41 descriptive accountsand the limited data rcdtide organisms and the single-point-source collected by scatteredresearch studies of sewagedischarge. The most noticeablepart conditions in Narragansett Bay and its of the bloom and the most dramatic kills of tributaries. marine life occurred in the. Providencc and Data collected by MERL in 1979-80 Seekonkrivers, but thebloom was apparent show an increasein measurednitrogen and as far south as Quonset Point. Anecdotal phosphorus compared to levels of these informationrefers to previousred tidesin the nutrientsmeasured by Kremer and Nixon at Providence River, but none so extensive as the same sample stationsin 1972 73 see that reportedin 1898, and none having Oviatt, 1981for data!. The MERL study producedwidespread fish kills. coincides with the time period when the Red tide events have followed a trend Providence POTW had broken down and of decreasing frequency since 1900, as was discharging chlorinated-only sewage. evidencedby a lackof reportsof occurrences Thatthis same increase is notnoted forsilicate, in bothlocal newspapers and city documents. which is not a majorconstituent of sewage- Fish kills still occurin isolatedareas, but red treatmcnt effluent, further suggests that tides have not beennoted in the sameareas as additional nutrient inputs resultedfirom the thefish kills. Recentkills usuallyoccur in the ProvidcnccPOTW breakdownduring 1979. summer when low dissolved oxygen Howcvcr, no recentreports of eutrophic concentrations occur from temporarily conditions in NarragansettBay are to be degraded local conditions, rather than to found in the literature. widespreadeutrophic conditions. Aroundthe turnof thecentury however, In 1985 a brown tMe occurred in the a six-year period of red tides occurred in bay,causing great consternation. The brown NarragansettBay. The worst of theseevents tideorganism,Aureococcusanophagegerens, took placein 1898,when an extraordinarykilled most of the bay's musselstocks and rcd tidecaused the most extensive mortality adverselyaffected nearly all other shellfish of marineanimals ever recorded in the bay stocks as well as some finfish species. Mead, 1898;Nixon, 1989!. It appearsthat However,this episodediffered from the red this periodof red tidesand accompanyingtidedescribed by Mead in 1898in thatoxygen fish kills correspondedto a stage in thc stressapparently was not the direct causeof development of Providence's sewage deathfor manyshellfish species subjected to treatmentsystemwhen sewage collectcdfrom the brown tide. Thc brown tide organismis aroundthc city was dischargeduntreated to apparentlya nutritionallypoor food source. the bay at a single dischargesite at Field's As thc organism bloomed, it reduced thc Point Nixon, 1989!. Nutrient enrichment, relativepredominance in proportionto total coupledwith theproper climatic conditions, available biomass! of typical bay apparentlycaused thc massivealgal blooms phytoplankton species. Filter-feeding observedin theupper bay during that peritxL shellfish were taking in plenty of plankton- Thc massmortality of marineanimals seems rich water,but werc simply unableto utilize not to havebeen directly related to thc algal theAureococcusorganisinsto sustaingrowth bloom, but rather due to oxygen stress and metabolic functions. hiessencc, shellfish asscciatedwith theincreasedoxygen demand starved to death in an area rich with broughton by both the decompositionof thc phytoplankton. 42 Chapter 4

Trends for brown tides cannot be of recent algae blooms to nutrient determined at thistime due to lack of sufhcient concentrationsin the bay, with a lack of long-term data and knowledge concerning reportedeutrophic symptoms,suggests that their overall biology andecology. Whether present day nutrient concentrations are not brown tidesare a resultof local perturbations producingnoticeable eutrophic conditions in in the systemdue to changesin planktonic the upper bay area. community structure or whether they are predator-prey mediatedisnotknown. Brown- algae blooms may be becoming more Toxics prominentin estuariesexperiencing stressed conditions e.g., ChesapeakeBay, western SOureea Of Metaf8 Long IslandSound! and may be an indicator of degradedwater quality conditions. At the NarragansettBay, because of its early present time not enough long-terra data industrialization,has someof the highest concerningthe relationship between nutrients metal loadingsof any estuaryin the United and changes in the bays planktonic States Nixon, l983!. Metals arrive in the communitiesare availableto adequatelybay from a variety of sources: terrestrial assesswhether bmwn tide eventssignify a weathering,wastewater treatment facility form of degradation.The lack of correlation discharges,industry point sources,offshore

Table4,4 Sourcesand kreding of metalsin upperNarragansett Bay. Figuresfor riverloading incorporate aii sourceswahin the respective watersheds,

Loading

gg ~ TOTAL Rivers' Blackstone 6.92 7.72 2.22 52.9 0.85 70,61 Pawtuxel 3.02 3.77 0.83 21.5 0,28 29.40 Moshassuck 0.33 0.13 0.18 na 0.009 0,649 Woonasqua- tuckel River 0.43 0.48 0.32 na 0.016 f.226 TOTAl RNERS 10.7 12AN 34574.4 1 155 101~ Publicly Owned Treabnent Worlte' NBG 27.01 35.4 4.72 41.7 1.5 110.33 BVDC 2.42 4.33 2.02 6.0 0.38 'IS.15 E. Providence 0.22 0.54 0.22 0.54 0.03 1.55 TOTAL POTWa 2945 40M 6.98 4IL24 1.91 127.0$

CSOa' na 3.9 0 na 8.7 Urban Runofl' 8.7 na 54.3 1834 0.14 244M 11.1 0.1 81 10 na 294 Wist' na na 1,0 na na 1Al Atntoep here' 18.0 20.0 7 7 no 53AI TOTAL IIKTALS 81.98 72.48 8481 32IL84 3.205 SSS~ ' Fram Nixon,in prep. ~ From RIPOES, 1988-1989 From Hoari et eL 1984 'Fram Nixon,Hunt end ~ 1988 ~ FromHoffman, 1987 Providence and 8eekonk Rivers: Water Quality Trends

representationof the percent of total input contributed by each source for four common metalsmeasured in thc bay. Major sources are different for the different metals for example,POTWs are thebiggest contributors of copperand nickel, while urbanrunoff is themajor sourceof lead Copper and zinc Figure 4,6!. By far, sewage treatment plant discharge and urban runoff to therivers andbay arethe major sourcesof all Q POTWe metals. Hoffman987! calculatesthe relative loadings expected from urban runoff for Q Atrnosptrsre various metalsbased upon land use. These data, reproduced in Table 4.5, show that g Industry loading increasesdramatically as land usc Nickel becomes less rural in character, and that P Rivers roadwaysare significant contributorsofmeta pollutantsto the bay. Q Runal

Metals Loadlnle

Due to the bay's long industrial history, metal loadings were much greater prior to the 1950s Nixon, 1990!. By thetime metalinputs were being monitored starting in the 1970s!,their inputto theestuary had decreasedmarkedly. Long-term loading data for metalsare generally unavailable because the methodology for measuringmetals in seawaterhas only recently beendeveloped. In recent years, since monitoring of metals has become routine, toxic metal Zinc discharges from wastewater treatment facilities have decreed Figurc 4.7!. The dischargeof somemetals, such as zinc and RNure 4e Contributionof copper, niottet,lead, and Lsro load to the Lg+oPhap aotoldRg to source,and lead,has faUen to lessthan 5 metric tonsper shown ae penent of totat litun~ wastewater year.'use decreasesare probably notdueto discrruyes are the ~source ot~ and nictret, whlieukanandstorrnw&errurrotaretAe~awtcea a declinein manufacturingassociated with of kneadand zino. Date from TaMe 44 mctal~ntaiaingdischarges Figure4,7!, but ratherto imprrmemcntsin metalsremoval by waters,atmospheric deposition, and CSOs. recently mandatedpretreatment processes. Table 4.4 gives ptescnt-dayinputs for each As shown in Figurc 4.7, loadings of source and Figure 4.6 gives a graphic nickel, zinc, lead, andcopper from the three 44 Chapter 4

Table4,S Urbanrunoff ioadings as a functionof landuse given an treatmentof municipal and annualrainfall Of121 Cnuyr. industrial wastewater Pollutant Loadingby Land Use dischargesin theupper bay. kg@m'iyr! As a consequence 1987 Residential Commercial Industrial Highway average concentrations of iron 135 166 856 915 dissolved metals in surface Manganese 49.6 8.6 65.8 513 Copper 3.0 35.3 watersof upperNarragansett Lead 22.4 43.6 166 2250 Bay were below EPA chronic Cadmium 0.18 0.69 0.85 2.48 Zinc 43.5 639 702 criteria levels for lead and cadmium and at or below Data from Hcttman, 1987 these levels for nickel. However,dissolved copper major sewagetreatment plants have been concentrations exceeded EPAchroniccriteria reducedsignificantly in thepastdecade. The in surface waters of both the Providence and NarragansettBay Commission,operator of Seekonk rivers Figure 4.8!. All metals the Providencefacility at Field's Point, has decline in concentration outside the mouth of instituted a pretreatmentprogram that has the Providence River. reduced metals loading in the influent by 85%since 1981 NBC, 1989!.Theonly toxin Sourcesof organotoxlnl to show an increasein loading is cyanide, which has doubledin its averageannual The major sources of chlorinated loading increasingfrom 3,000to 6,000kg/ organotoxins PCBs, DDE, DDT, Aroclor, yr! and is typically not removed during etc,! discharginginto NarragansettBay are wastewater pretreatment NBC, 1989!. riversandmunicipal trelitment sites. Overall, It can be concludedthat metal loading rivers contributethe greatestconcentrations to the upper bay hasbeen significant, that it of PCBs, accountingfor 69% of the total increasedin responseto industrializationof annualinput Table 4.6!. The load of PCBs theregion, and that it hasgenerailydecreased contained in rivers arrives from industrial in recent years in responseto improved point sourcesalong the rivers and nonpoint Ffgure47 Trendsin dischargeof metalsto upperNarragansett Bay by municipal point sources POTlllfsJ showingover 80% reductions for aN metals since 1980. Numbers ofpersons employedin metal tnsdes is used asa proxy tometaltradeactivlty, indicating that thereductfonsarenot theresuffofa decreasein the metal worfcng industry. Datafrom US Censusand NPDESpermit records. ,I

I i II I ~ Copper Q Lead Q Zinc Q Nickel Providence and Seekonk Rivers: Water Qva ity Trends

2GO 180 Table 4.6 PreeentdayPCB boding '160 to Narrgansett Bay by source.' 140 Loading 120 grams per year! 100 8hrefe 18,040 Blackstone 14,854 Pawtuxet 1654 20 Taunton 768 Woonasquatucket 698 0 Moshassuck 368

80 POTWa 8160 70 BVDC 3819 NBG 3062 Others' 1341 50 East Providence 118 40 Ouonaet Point' 1Oe I io TOTAL PCSa 0 ' From Latimer, 1 988. ' Bristol, f, Greenwich, Fel River, $ 3.5 Newyort Wanen. Jamestown ' Naval shipyardpoint source in millay region

sources such as urban runoff, as well as from resuspensionofcontaminatedsediment lining 1.5 theriver bottom. Atmosphericinput of PCBs 1 hasbeenmeasuredby Christensenetal. 979! 0.5 in the Providenceregion, but their values 03 werederivedduring the time when production of PCBs was stiH ongoing, and therefore 2.5 concentrations in the atmosphere would presumablyhave been greater than at present. 1.5 No recentestimate of atmosphericPCBs in the Providenceregion has been reported. Table4.6 gives present-day loading estimates 0.50 for PCBsinto NarragansettBay. o e rn e a cs e t re g g At present the 81ackstone River is the major contributor of PCBs, adding 81% of the total riverine input of PCBs to the upper bay.The BlackstoneRiver exceedsthe EPA criteria of 14 ng/1for PCB concentrations alongmost of its length Latimer, 1988!.The Hydra 48 Downhay trlondo ln concontns5ore ot WoonasquatucketRiver contains the highest rtioooArodmotels in Nampenoott say ~, on/ ~ Cenaaltentty aseeede EPA Chrentc Critena concentrationsof PCBsof all bay tributaries levels, and aN motel concentnNlono,acopt nickel, , evaluated to date, but its low flow makes it a %crease ~ once otrtokdethe waters o/the ~ bay. Qatatrorrr Deeringet at. rtN!. EP4 crlorla itwot relatively insignificantoverall contributorto ta lbr chmob er|pooum. theupper bay Latimer, 1988;see Table 4.6!. TheoverallPCBloading for sewagetreatment 46 Chapter 4

facilities is 8 kg/yr, and for rivers, 18 kg/yr. Table 4.7 Sources and loadings of petroleum hydrocarbons in upper Of thesewage treatment facilities, theB VDC Narragansett Bay. andNBC POTWsare the greatestcontributors Source Loading of PCBs to the Seekonk and Providence rivers metric tons/yr! Table 4.6!. Runoff & Rivers 820 POTWs 630 Organotoxln Loadlngs Waste oil 130 industry 50 CSOs 50 Spills 30 Since 1979, PCB concentrations have Atmosphere 16 declined dramatically in the Pawtuxet River TOTAL 1726 from 4.3 p.g/I to 5.0 ng/1! and the Blackstone River from 500 ng/1 to 35 ng/1! Latimer, From Hoffman et at., 1984 1988!. Themarkeddecreaseinconcentrations can be attributed to a haltin production during reasonableestimates of past PCB loading. 1979, as well as restriction of their use. Sediment cores show an increase in PCB Latimer 988! determined that reductions in concentrationswith decreasingdepth into riverine concentrations of PCBs could not be the sediment Figure 4.9!. The maximum attributed to changes in flow regime, PCB concentrations are seen to occur around concluding that the reductions were the time of World War II about 25 cm!, the attributableto reducedsource inputs. time of greatestuse and production of PCBs, Trends in PCB concentrations over and before their periodofregulation Latimer, longer periods of time can be derived from 1988!. analysis of sediment core samples. Most The tendency of PCBs to concentrate in PCBs and other chlorinated compounds are sediments and not degrade rapidly leads to not easily lost through chemical reactions in major problems in disposing of dredged seawater, rather, they become trapped and materials, since these are often heavily accumulate in the sediments, giving contaminated with decades worth of accumulated PCBs. Figure 4.9 Trends in load- PC8$ ng/gtttdpi' ~! ings of PCBsin Sources of Petroleum Hydrocarbons the Providence 0 5000 10000 15000 River over time, using sediment Sources of hydrocarbon inputs to depth as a proxy Narragansett Bay are river runoff, sewage 5 to age, showing E highest concen- treatment discharges, waste-oil disposal, cP i0 trations dudng the industrial discharges,CSOs, oil spills, and i5 period of World 25 War II. The atmosphericdeposition. Loadings for each «c 35 grayed regin in- of thesesources are given in Table 4.7. A dicates the dis- 45 total of 1,726 metric tons of hydrocarbons E turbed upper 55 layerof sediment, enters the bay each year. cS S5 in which concen- Petroleum hydrocarbons exist in two 75 trations at a given depth may not forms: ! petroleumhydrocarbons PHCs! 85 correlate well to and ! polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons i 00 age. Data from Latimer 988!. PAHs!. In general,PHCs are less soluble in Providenceand SeekonkRivers: WaterQuality Trends

Tabs 4,8 Sourcesof hydneatmrt types+ pen:ant of tata/ loading. Hydtocarbon Load|nge

PHCa In general,hydrocarbon inputs have

Blackstone River 61 decreasedin the Providence River, as is Other rivers 39 evidenced by comparison of studies STPQ 60 NBC 30 performed in 1974 75, 1981 82, and 1985 BVDC 13 86. PHCs dischargedfrom the POTW at Others 57 PAHa Field'sPoint were 226 2105 metric tons/year

Rlvara $3 in the 1974 75 study,258 2 119metric tons/ Taunton 55 yearin the 1981 82 study,and95+63 metric Blackstone 18 Pawtuxet 8 tons/yearin the 1985-86study Quinn,1988!. Woonasquatucket 2 The decreasein PHCs in the plant effluent Mash assuck 1 Others 16 wasapparently due to repairsand to upgraded STPa 7 treatmentptocessing which took place after NBC 51 Others 49 thecompletion of the 1981 82study. Coresample analyses show a gradient Narregsnse» Bey Project Progress Rep., 1989. of hydtocarbon concentrations that decreases with sedimentdepth in theProvidence River. waterthan axe PAHs, andtherefore they tend Prior to a sedimentdepth corresponding to settleinto the sedimentsmore readily than roughlyto 1925,hydrocarbon concentrations do PAHs. Table 4.8 shows the various sources retrtainstable and at very low levels, reflecting of eachhydrocarbon form, and the percent of a time whenmachinery powered by fossil total input contributedby eachsource. Note fuels was uncommon Quinn, 1988! see that rivers contributea greateramount of the Figure 4.10!. more soluble PAHs than does sewage Although hydrocarbon input to treatmenteffluen, whereassewage treatment NarragansettBay has apparentlydecreased plantsinput greateramounts of PHCs. over recent years, studies suggestthat certain Of thehydrocarbons discharged into benthic organisms,particularly hard clams theProvidence River, Olsen and Lee 979! Mercenaria rnercenaria!, may be estimated that 50% of the total becomes bioaccumulating hydrocarbons in their incorporated into the sediments, the other tissues. Boehn and Quinn 977! found 50% being transported downbay where hydrocarbon concentrations in wet clam eventually 34% is transportedinto Rhode tissuestobe 15ppmin 1971;this had increased IslandSound. Santschi et aL 984! estimate to 42 ppm in 1977. Hydrocarbonsare not that20-60% of all hydrocttrbonsentering the rapidly depuratedby hard clams, and their bay are retained within the sediments. Once physiological effect upon the clams is in the sediments,biodegradation is minimal presentlyunknown. No guidelinesexist for andthe hydhocarbonsrem m trappedunless hydrocarbons in clam tissues for human resuspendedinto the water column through consumption, and more recent estimates are bioturbationor local eventsthat resuspend unavailable. thebottom sediments e.g., dredging, storm events!. 48 Chapter 4

Hydrocarbons pg/g! of potential human health hazard since it 0 100 200 300 400 detectsbacteria that occurnaturally in the intestinesof many warm-bloodedanimals.

1970 At presentCSOs are the principal source of coliforms entering the bay,

10 providing92% of thetotal input Table4.9! 8 Wastewater treatment facilities, on the other ~ 15 hand,normally contribute less than 1%of the K total coliformsentering the bay Roman, 8' 1989!. Rivers and urban runoff are also C majorcoliformcontributorsto the bay. Table 4.9 givespresent-day bacterial loading to I zs 1920NarragansettBay. Pathogensalsoenter Narragansett Bay 1910 through boating activity, when heads are dischargeddirectly into the bay. Recreational boatingactivity hascontinuously increased Figure< 10 Trendsin petroleumhydrncebon loading duringrecent years, with anestimated 34,000 in the ProvidenceRiver over time, usingsediment boatsequipped with marine heads currently depthas a proxy to age,shomnga mtukedincrease in concentrationsabout the time of the popufarizalionof usingthe waters of NarragansettBay each gasolinedriven engines to the area940!. Figure year Roman,1989!. Roman989! estimates adaptedfrom Nixon, Hunt. and Nowick/ 066!. that between 51 x. 10'o and S1 x 10" fecal coliformsper day enterthe bay from this Patho gens source,depending upon the percentof boats in thebay that are occupied at anyparticular Sources of Pathogens time. Presently,concerns are shifting to Upper bay bacteriological water viral pathogenconcentrations in the water. quality is a functionof temperature,tidal Comparedto bacteria,viruses are less affected phase,sewage treatmentplanteffluent quality andquantity, and the frequency and amount Table4.8 Pathogenbading to of rainfall. Because of difficulties involved NarragansettBay. in isolating pathogenicbacteria and viruses Loading fromseawater, it is standardpractice to infer x 10 "/year! waterquality Romconcentrationsof coliform Rivers 280 bacteria. Fecal coliform bacteria ate natural Blaokatohe 263 inhabitants of the human intestinal tract and Pawtuxet 17 are passed to the environment in the feces. POTWe 4.1 NBC 1.4 Fecalcoliforms are the present standard by BVDC 2.7 whichpotential water quality contamination E, Providerca 0.'01 from humanfeces is measured.Water is also 3347 sometimestested for "total coliforms," but TOTAL 3$31.1 thistest is considereda lessprecise indicator From Roman, 1980 Prov]ctenceand Seekonk Rivers: Water Qua]ity Trends 49 by chlorination processes performed at permanently and conditionally closed in wastewater treatment plants and also are variousyears since 1967. There are presently apparentlyless affected by cold winter water approximately 41,000 acresof shellfish beds temperatures. In light of an increased in NarragansettBay. During the 20-year incidenceof gastrointestinaldisease related span from 1947 to 1967, 2,466 acres of io shellfish consumption 82% of reported shellfish beds were closed on either a gasteroenteritis cases from shellfish permanentor a conditionalbasis. During the consumption occurred between 1980 and 21-year spanfrom 1967 to 1988, 1,918 acres 1988!,concerns currently focus on whether havebeen changed from permanentlyclosed or not fecal or total coliforms are good statusto conditionally closed status. Whether indicators of virus concentr3tionsin seawater, this trend signifies an actual change in and whether they are good indicators of pathogenconcentrationsover time, or whether consumer risk for eating potentially it is an artifact duc to betteror morc frequent contaminated shellfish Roman, 1989!. monitoring, is unknown, but suggests improving conditions. Pathogen Loacllnoa If improvementsin water quality in the Seekonk and Providence rivers are to be Becauseof theirpotential as indicators achieved however, correction of CSO of bacteriologicaHycontaminated waters, discharges will need to occur. The coliforms havebeen monitored weekly in thc NarragansettBay Commissionis presently upper bay since the 1960sand monthly in undertaking an assessment of the 65 waters over shellfish beds since thc 1950s, Providence CSOs and will be drafting a and coliform levels in sheHfish meats have managementplan, to becompleted within the been measured since the early 1970s. next 3-4 years, which will addresscorrection Coliform levels generaHywere low in the of thesedischarges to the upperbay. 1960s,corresponding to yearsof low rainfaH, while thc 1970s show increased coliform levels,corTespondingto greater-than-average Rgure 411 Trends in pathogen' contamination of rainfalL Because CSOs cause bacteria levels upper Narragansett Bay using permanently and to increaseduring rainstorms,state officials conditionally closed shellfish beds as a poxy to contamination extent. itis not known lf theincreasein close sheHfishing areas if rainfall is more closedacreage is e functionof increasedpathogenr'o than one-half inch in a 24-hour time span. contamsration or due to mare frequent and tretter monitonngefforta Data from R/DEM shellfishbed Theconditional area wasclosed continuously monitoring records. during the breakdown of the PO'PV at Field's Point. Long-termdata on coliform loadings arc lacking, but records of sheHfish-bed closuresgive someindication as to whether coliform concentration in the water column has increased or decreased over time in the upper bay region. Figure 4.11 showsthe numbcrof acres of shellfish beds in NarragansettBay

Chapter 5

Figure 5.1 heaterquality classification and condition of shellfish bedsin Narragansett and Mount Hope Bay, as determined by Rl Dept, of Environmental Management for 1990. From RIGIS 990!. Narragansett Bay: Water Quality Trends 53

Figure $.2 Locationof municipalwastewater treatment facilities in Narragansettand Mount Hope Bay. Size of theindicator circles indicates the relativesize of the voiumedischarged to receiving waters. From RIGIS MO!. 54 Chapter 5

Table5, 1 Long-termdata sets available for NarragansettBay.

Major Sampling Station Sampling Period of Parameters Party Locations Frequency Sampling Sampled

Jeffries Fox Island, Weekly 1959-Present Benthic Fishes GSO! Whale Rock

Smayda West Passage Biweekly 1959-Present Nutrients GSO! Phytoplankton Zooplankton

MERL GSO Dock Variable 197~reaent Temperature GSO! Salinity Nutrients

Rhode Island Mid and Monthly 1969-1977 Benthic Fishes Fish 8 Wildlife Lower Bay

RIDEM Upper Bay Monthly 1947-Present Coliform Bacteria

EPA recommendationof 6.0 ppm to be details!, lower bay dissolved oxygen considered high quality saltwater. concentrations,even in bottom waters,retnain Unpublishedreports note that certain local well above the EPA criterion of 6.0 for waters areasdo experienceanoxic conditions during consideredable to supporta diversity of summermonthsinthe lower bay. The teported marine life, and is not to be considered sites are generally restrictedto deep waters stressfulto the aquaticbiota. lying at the bottom of the shipping channel andisolated deep holes that experience little Nutrients mixing during the hottest summer months and thereforehave the potential to become Excessive levels of nutrients have oxygen-depleted. been reported to cause symptoms of There never has been routine eutrophication in coastal waters. Given the monitoring of dissolvedoxygen in the lower trend of increasing population in the bay,and thexefore long-term trends cannot be watershedof NarragansettBay Figure 3.1!, adequately evaluated. Gradients in both concern over increases in nutrient surfaceand bottom water dissolved oxygen concentrationsin thebay is not inappropriate. concentrationshorn the upper to lower bay However, publisheddata are insufficient to werefound during anAugust~tember 19&0 detcrminc whether there are long-term MERL study Figure5.3!. Dissolvedoxygen increasesin nitrogen concentrations that increasesby a factor of 1.5 in surfacewater wouldbe indicative of eutrophication. and by a factor of 6 in bottom water between Fox Point at thc head of the Providence Nits on River! andConimicut Point which marksthe entranceto the upper bay!. Although low Figure5.4 showssurface water nitrate levels of dissolvedoxygen still exist in the nitrogen concentrationsas measuredby Providenceand Seekonkzivcrsduring sumtoer Oviatt 981! during 1979-80throughout inonths Figure5.3; also seeChapter 4 for thebay. A comparisonof tr3nsectsperformed Narragansett Bay: Water Qua!ity Trends 55

197~ studymay have been a result of the enriched effluent from the POTW at Field's Point, which had broken down from 1978 to 1980 and was adding chlorinated-only sewage to the Providence River during that time see Chapter 4!. Kremer and Nixon 978! published an account of seasonal andspatial changes in nutrient concentrations in Narragansett Bay which show that nitrogen

10 concentrations decrease with 84 6 distancedown bay. vk N i trogen appare n tl y i5 0 becomesa limiting 5.9 104 1~ 1$.a 19> 22.g 25.7 SCS 43Z factor thrOughout KIIMNIerlOowlbay thebay d~ng thc Hytue 48 tdeaNzedschematic of surfacewater dissolved oxygen content in N~ganaattBaf, not axeunttngforbcaaradoralnattacata vaiancaa Lower Ngura months, when it showaa downbep transect ofseafare andboNom watw dissolved oxygen content b comesd ieted during4uguat of $987,Data Aom Doonng at af.988! andR&lS $990!. relative to available in1972-73andagainduring 1979 80shows phosphorus by phytoplanktonuptake. that althoughnitrate levels were higher in Concentrationsof nitritc andnitrate are not 1979 80 than the earlier study in thcupper verydifferent over thc lengthof thc bay, bay, in thelower bay the 1979-40levels do>casingonly slightly from the head of thc werethe same as, or lowerthan, the earlier estuaryto Rhode Island SoutML Thcydid find levels. Increuxxinitrogen and phosphorus however, that atmnonia levels werc elevated concentrationsin thc upperbay during thc in thcProvidence Riverrclative todownbay 56 Chapter 5

thatphosphate levels in the lower bay did not change significantly over time Oviatt, 1981!. Since phosphateis a major constituent of POTW discharges, the increased phosphate conccntrationsfound in the upper bay during the 1979-80 study couM be a result of the POTW bmdcdown at Field's Point secChapter 4!. Other sources of available data also give no indication of increasingphosphate conccntrationsinthc lowerbay. Smayda's 984! biweekly Rywe SA ideaiized sehomaNcof nlrate nidojpm NO/ooncentratione in monitoringof Station NerragenseNSay, exoiuding the Seeker Riverfor whkh II just north of the and based tyon meaeurernentenoported in Ocher /98 i! endRi + <~! JamestownBridge! did not indicate any concentrations,reaching concentrations near increasingtrend inphosphorusconcentrations zero at the mouth of the bay, suggesting between1973 and 1983,and is in general sewagetreatment facility dischargesas the agrccmcntwith that scenby Oviatt 981!. major source of ammonia. Kremcr and Nixon 978! found phosphatetobe distinctly seasonal throughout PhullPhato the bay. Since it is effectively recycled within the biota during the sumjlncrmonths, Phosphate,like nitrogen, shows a it is generallynot consideredto bc limiting in trendof decreasingconcentrations downbay NarragansettBay. Figure 5.5!. During a 1972-73 study, a decreasein phosphateconcentrations by a Slllca factor of 2.5 from Fox Point to Conimicut Point was observed Kremer and Nixon, Silica is a major component of 1978!. Comparisonof monthly surveys diatoins,which arean importantfood source conductedin 1972-73with 1979-80,indicates for fish and shellfish. Thc distribution of Nanagansett Bay: Water Qua/ity Trends 57

silica haslong been linked to the abundance and distribution of diatoms in coastal waters. Silicate was found to be highly seasonal in Narragansett Bay Kremer and Nixon, 1978!. A major depletion of silicate in the water column is observed during thc period from March through May, corresponding to the spring diatom bloom see Figure 5.7!. S ilic a sources axe mainly terrestrial, rivers FfyweKS idealizedweber~ ofphoeplete iPO J oonoenleNoreio Narrsganaett t r a n s p 0 r t BIy,exdbdinyfheSeekonkNverforwhiohnocAatawereavakbfe, andbasodupon mcch~sm fof fMS meaautemenh~potted in Oviatt 081!and RIGiS 5190!. important nutrient. Silicate concentrations show a decreasingtrend downbaysimilar to thatobserved for othernutricnts Rgurc 5.6!. Plankton A decreaseby a factorof 1.4&om Fox Point toConimicut Point is observed forboth studies A 20-year record of diatom shownin Oviatt981!. Sincesilicate is not abundanccsfromastation in the%est Passage amajorconstituentofsewagetteatmentplant of lowerNarragansett Bay showsthat little efQuent,inmmse1 concentrations were not ovcrallchangeindiatombiomasshasoccurred observedduring the 1979-40 study relative since1958 Smayda,1984!. Hingaet al. tothoscof1972 73,inspiteofthcProvidence 988!, in their reviewof all long-term POPVbreakdown. Differences in silicate phytoplanktondatasetsforNarragansett Bay, concentrationsbetweenthetwostudypcriodscould 6nd no cvidcncc of an increasein areminimal but thereis a slightincrease in biomassorabundance,except within someof wetyears 972-73! comparedto dryyears the lessdominant phytoplankton species. 979-4G! seeFigure 1.3!, as wouldbe Flagelhtesdid not appear to beincreasing at expectedsince rivers arc the major source. thcexpenseofdiatomsorotherphytoplankton 58 Chapter 5

Figure 5.8 Ideeiized schematic of silicate Si0$ concentrationsin Narragansett Bay, ex- civding the Seekonk River for which no data were avaiiabie, and based upon measure- ments reportedin Oviatf I 98 I! and RIGIS 990!.

estimates Figure 5.8! also show a bimodal seasonal pattern, which typically lags slightly behind the pattern for the phytoplankton chlorophyll! on which the zooplankton feed Krcmer and Nixon, 1978!.

species,as might be expectedif therewere a lmpllcatlone for Kutrophlcatlon trendtoward cutmphication of thc bay. Kremer and Nixon 978! present Althoughthe dataare not complete spatialand seasonal variations in chlorophyll enoughto determinewhether eutrophication a concentrations, an estimate of is occurringin theeast and west passages of phytoplankton concentration, from the Narragansett Bay, the evidence that is ProvidenceRiver to the mouthof thc bay availablesuggests thatit is not anissue for the Figure5.7!. 'Ihcsedata show aslightdecrcase lowerbay. Althoughriver input is still the in chlorophylla concentrationsdownbay, as greatestsource of nutrientsto the bay, most wouldbc expected in correspondenccwith a of this input is receivedby the upperbay downbay gradient of reduced nutrient region. Thecontribution by oceanicwaters concentrations. As is typical of many exceedsthat which entersfrom sewage estuarineandmarinecoastal waters, abimahl treatmentfacilitics Table 5.2!. However, seasonalabundance of chlorophylla isnoted, nutrientlcvclsin thclower bay do not sccm to with oneof thc peaksarising in very early havesignificantly changed for at leastthe springand thc otherin latesummer/early past35 years,suggesting that oceanicwaters autumn, correspondingto spring and fall havehistorically been the major sourceof phytoplanktonblooms. Zooplankice biomass nutricntsto thclower bay, and have provided Narragansett Bay: Water Qua/ity Trends a relativelystable supply. Theoverall PROVR implications, as well as interactions of ocean derived nutricnts are not well known at present,but it can be said that this source supplies a readily availablc source of nitrogen and 2 0 phosphorusto NarragansetttBay. As was shown in Chapter4, the probability of eutrophicationis much greaterin the upperbay, since MT MPE sewage treatment facihties and rivers 4 provide the tnajority of nutrients to thc bay and most of these sourcesare locatedin thc upperreaches of the bay or localized in coves around the ~ 4 marginsof the bay. If any concernis 25 P ~ e 25 warranted, it is that the current trend of increased development and population growth within the 5 8 NartaganscttBay watershedwill cause int:zctutcdnutricntloading,particularly j, ~ 5 Ae44 AP Po~ 44 .4 V' to the upperbay area. JFMAMJJASDRDJFMAMJJA5ORD Data presented by several researchersis suggestiveof general fvgtees7 Subrace eoN!and boNom hottow! concentrations esN~c s ss p~cAmlyin the Augurrtof chtorephyN-a1'-Augurrt tn Nrtrragansett 1973, showingthe rind MountbimedaiseeeonakyofHope Bey bern PIVidenCC and SeekOnk RiVCr areaS phytoptanktonabundance. Taken from Kremer and Nuon of thebay. Frithscn989! founda 978! Se

growth factors, problemsarise when concentrations of metals in estuarine waters exceed these trace levels. As metal concentrations increase in the water column, phytoplankton remove metals in excess of the trace amountsrequired for growth, and these excessmetals may be accumulated within bodytissues. Bioaccumulation can produce two outcomes: ! accumulations reach a toxic level within the individual phytoplankton cell and cause its death, or ! accumulations do not reach a level toxic enoughto causecell death,but areinstead passed along the food web and are bioaccumulatedat higher concentrationsas they pmgressinto higher trophic levels. Bioaccumulation can cause death or other adverseeffects thin egg shells in osprey, for example! if toxics Recure$.8 Zooptanktonbiomass estimates in Harragan accumulate. and MountHope Bay fnarn August 1972-4ugust 1973, sho wing Metals also have an affinity typicalpredator~response whencornparaftophyiopAse ton abundance Flg. 5.7i, Taken horn Krerner and H for bindingwith sediment, where they 978! their Figure 8. often undergochemical changesby reactionwith sedimentpore wateror in NarragansettBay show no apparent adverse othermetals. Once bound to thesediment, or effectsthat are generallyassociated with buried under accumulations of silt and eutrophication events. sediment,metals can be very long-lived, leavinga historyof pastdeposition events. Toxins Metalsin sedimentscan also be ingested by benthicorganisms andbioaccumulate through the aquaticmarine food web. Metal concentrations in the water Metals in the marine environment are column all show decreasing downbay of concernbecause of their potentialtoxic grldients from theProvidence River to Rhode effectsupon marine aquatic flora and fauna IslandSound Figure5.9!. Notethedifferenc Metals also pose potential health risks between concentrations of various metals: associatedwith humanconsumption of fish cadmium is at low levels while copper is and shellfish contaminated with toxic metals. elevatedthroughout the estuary. Althoughmarine plants and animals require Since major metal discharges were very small or trace amounts of most metals as occurring in NarragansettBay long before Narragansett Bay: Water Quality Trends

Figure 8.9 Idealizedschematic of ccncentrafionaof dissolved chromium,cadmium, capper, and lead in NarragansettBay, not accountingfor lccafized hot spots . Adapted&om data reportedin Doeringet al. 988! and Riols 990!. monitoringwasadopted,analysisoftherecord tonging,and therefore the tecordreported by in sediments is one of the best sources for Bricker 990! for salt marsh cores taken on determining long-term trends in metal PrudenceIslandhavebeenusedheretodepict loadings.Patterns of metalconcentrations in metalstrends in the bay. bottom sedimentshave been measuredby Metalconcentrationsinsaltmarshcores Goldberget aL 977!, Hunt unpubl.!, and takenon PrudenceIsland in the middle bay Santschietal. 984!, andfor saltmarshesby are approximately2-10 times less than they Bricker 990!. Unlike bottomsediments, are at Field's Point in the upperbay near salt marshes have not been disrupted by Conimicut Point. In the salt marsh on dredging, trawler dragging, or quahog PmdenceIsland,copper,chromium,andlead 62 Chapter 5

Concentration ltg/g dry wt!

0 0.2 0.4 0.8 0.8 0 2 4 8 8 101214 0 S 101520253035 Present LS s -1 $70 7.$ 10 -1 $50 1$ 20 30 -1 $$0 40 $0 17$0 50

K 80 t6$0 IO 100 -15$0 0 10 20 30 40 SO 80 0 20 40 $0 80 100 0 7$ 1$0 225 300 8 ,, Present A'NN. 5 7.$ 1 0 - - - -1$$0 1$ 20 - - -1 $$0 30 40 $0 - - - - -17$0 50 70 90$0 Zinc Copper Lead 100 - - - -15$0 RgareS 10 Representationof trends ovw time for cadmium, nickel, chromium, zinc, aapper, and lead ln NanagansettBay. Nickel, zinc, and cadmium show anomalous trends, increasing insediment concentratkrns priorto theonset oftheindustriial revolution. Oata taken from ~ 990!as reported for salt marsh sediment coresamples taken an Prudenceisland in thelower bay seeFig. 1.1!.

all showsimilar trends,beginning a sharp effluent apparentlywas sufficient to stabilize increaseatapproximately 50cmdepth, which thc previously increasingtrend for metals correspondsnicely with the onset of rapid dischargedinto the bay. industrialgrowth in the Bmridcnccregion Despite overall decreasingdownbay 100 years ago Figure 5.10!. Fot all three trends, "hot spots" of higher sediment metals,loading leveled off approxirntttelyconcentrationsexist in isolated places in 20-30 yearsago, corresponding to a period NarragansettBay. The mostextensive onc is whenmany sewagetreatment facilities were locatednear Quonset Point, wherea farmer being constructedand put into operation. U.S. Naval Air Rework Facility was in Althoughthe facilitics werenot originally operation between 1942 and 1973. Here, designedfor the removal of metals, most several trace metals are found in sediments at metalsare highly particle-absorptive and the levels above EPA standards, and the simple processof solids removal from thc contaminatianextends for several kilometers Narragansett Bay: Water Quality Trends 63

from shore Eisler et al., 1977!. Otherisolated Petroleum Mydrocatbonl hot spots generally a result of' localized industry are located at Apponaug Cove, Sincepetroleum products are a major Brushneck Cove, Bullock's Cove, Greenwich commodity shipped through Narragansett Cove,Newport Harbor,Pawtuxet Cove, and Bay, it is to be expectedthat hydrocarbons Wickford Cove,all former or presentsites of would be a commonsource of pollution in point sourcesof specific metals Bender et both waterand sediment. A rapid increasein al., 1988!.As notedpreviously, the impact of the rate of hydrocarbon use from thesehot spotsis local; theydo not generally approximately1947onward spurred the onset affectthe quality of thewater in Narragansett ofhydrocarbonpollution in NarragansettBay Bay as a whole. seeFigme4. 10!. This pollutionisareflection Studieshave beenperformed tomeasute of the useof petroleumproducts as a major the concentrations of metals in the tissues of source of fuel in automobiles and.other living organisms,particularly the hardclam, machinery,as well as increasedpetmleum Mercenaria rrtercenaria. In general, the transport on the bay and in the port of tissuesofhardclams throughout Narragansett Providence. Concerns over hydrocarbon Bay are contaminated with metals, but not pollutantsare for toxic effectsin living tissues above federal alert levels. Metal of fish and shellfish andpotential toxicity to concentrations in clam meat tissues generally do not cortelatevery well to concentrations detected in either the salimentsorthe water column Bender et al., 1988!.

Ryure S 11 ktealized schernaticof petrokmm hydrocarbon concen- trationsinNarragansett Bay surface sediments, not axeunting for io- cafized or smaiI scaie variances or hot spots". Adapted front datareported by Ouinn 9SS! and RIGIS 990!. Chapter 5 humans when contaminated fish or shellfish occasionalsmall spills. are consumed, Hydrocarbon residues have been found Petroleum hydrocarbons have been in thetissues of hardclams, particularly those more carefully studiedin NarragansettBay in the upper bay Providence River area. than in most other estuariesin the country. However,no EPAcriteria exist by whichto As with all other pollutants found in evaluate hydrocarbon contamination in the NarragansettBay, a decreasingdownbay bay or its potential effect for human gradient is observed in hydrocarbon consumption. Black et al, 988! found concentrationsin surfacesediments Figure significantly higher levelsof PHCs but not 5.11!. Note that concentrations in the East PAHs! in winter floundereggs at Gaspee Passage,the main shippingartery for tanker Point in the ProvidenceRiver! than at Fox traffic into and out of the bay, are typically Island in the West Passage,just north of the higher than in the West Passage.Increased JamestownBridge!. This is not surprising petroleum hydrocarbonconcentrations are consideringthat hydrocarbon concentrations alsoseen in thelower bay in theregion near in sedimentscan be 10or moretimes greater the naval base in Newport. Petroleum in the Providence River than in the West hydrocarbonconcentrations are greatestin Passage Figure 5.11!. the Providence and Seekonkrivers, decrease Urban runoff may become an 2-fold by Conimicut Point, and further increasinglyimportant source to the lower decreasewith proximity to Rhode Island bay as more land within the watershed and Sound. Althoughpublicity focuseson oil along the coast is convertedfrom rural to spills from tanker accidents, most urban use,thus increasingurban runoff and hydrocarboncontamination of thebay occurs pollutant loadings,potentially by orders of wherepetroleum products are transferredto magnitude seeTable 4.5!. storage facilities, continuous road runoff, disposal of crankcase oil down storm drains PCBj all aroundthe developedpart of the bay, and Chlorinatedhydrocarbons are relative

$400 newcomers to the Narragansett Bay 5 i200 jr 125' ecosystem,since production started in thc early 1950sand continuinginto thc early f i000 Ar1IsO ce 800 1970s. It was not until Rachel Carson' s Silent Spring was published in 1962 that widespreadconcern and monitoring of these 400 II 200 toxins was begun. Major sourcesof PCBs have beenindustry and urban runoff, with 0~neearraowe rivers providing the major load of PCBs to Station Oownbay the bay by collectingand channelingthc urban runoff. RgoreX12 Concentrations ofPCBe along a doenbay As noted in Chapter4, PCB inputs to transectthough the East Passageof Narragansett the Providence and Seekonk rivers have Bay. Transectbegins in the SeekonkRftrer and ends near WhaleRock Froln data reported4 La&nw decreaseddr3matically since production was 988!. halted in 1979. PCB s are still concentrated in NarragansettBay: WaterQoaf]ty Trends 65 the Providence and Seekonklivers, and there overallhealth and cleanliness of Narragansett is a dramatic 42-fold decrease in PCB Bay by the extent of fecal coliform concentrations from the head of the Seekonk contamination. River to ConimicutPoint Figure5.12!. PCS Watcrclassifiedas unfit for shellfishing concentrationsare relatively low throughout or swimming due to bacterial contamination theentire lower bay and do notpose aproblem, is mainlyfound in theupper bay, while only especiallysince production and useof these very localized sites in the lower bay fail to toxins has ceased and concentrations will meet the highest standards set forth in the probablynot increasein thefuture. Slightbut CleanWater Act of 1972 seeFigurc 5.1!, measurable PCB concentrations do exist in Localized closures of waters are due to hard clam tissues, but the risk to human coliform pollution that can be attributedto health is difficult to assesssince no federal rnarinasorboating facilities, sewage treatment alert levels or guidelineshave been established facilities, and other point sourcesat various for this class of toxins. sitesaround the shores of NarragansettBay. PCB contamination of sediments Thc lower baysewage treatment facilities are potentially posesproblems other thanhealth smallerthan at thehead of thebay, and the hazardsfor humanconsumption. Black et al. bodyof receivingwater is muchlarger and 988!, in a laboratoryexperiment, found better flushed than are the Providence and that smaller-sized winter flounder larvae Seekonk rivers, therefore most of thc lower hatchedfrom eggscontaining higher levels bay is consideredsafe for fishing and of PCBs.However, when these investigators swimming. In the upperbay, extensive areas collected larval flounder from Fox Island and of shellfishbeds have been managed on a GaspeePoint and tested them for a varietyof conditionally open basis since 1947. After biological responses affected by PCB largerainfalls,sewage mixes with stormwater contamination, they found no significant andflows out CSOsat the headof thebay. differences between thc two populations. Conditional areas are closed for at least 7 AlthoughPCBs exist in sedimentsin thebay, dayswhen one-half inch of rain falls within a their effect on growth and survivalof winter 24-hourperiod, longer if rainfallis greateror flounderin NarragansettBay is apparently fallsover a longerspan of time.The majority not significant. of problems from coliform-contaminated waters occur in the upper bay and Mount Waterborne Pathogens Hope Bay, due to proximity to the sourceof pathogens sewage treatment facility outfalls Water quality degradation due to andCSOs! and reduced flushing and mixing pathogeniccontamination is probablythe properties. formof pollutionof whichthe public is most As discussedin Chapters3 and4, the aware.Closures of bothsv~ing areasand main source of coliform contamination is shellfish beds result when water is effluent from the 65 CSOs in Providence. contaminatedby highconcentrations of fecal Control of them dischargeswould vastly coliform bacteria. Because closure of such improvethe bacteriologicalquality of the areaslimits useof the bay, andmay have waterin the upperbay region. Perhapsas a adverseeffects upon thc rapidly growing result of improved sewage treatment tourismbusiness, the public often judges the technology, water quality has recently 66

improvedto the point whereconsideration is Tidal mixing of offshorewaters is now oneof being given to permanent opening of the largest sourcesof nutrient input to Conditional Area B seeFigure 5.1!. NarragansettBay. No apparent trend toward nutrient General Conclusions: enrichmentand eutrophicationof the bay, Upper and Lower Bay especially in the lower reaches,is observedin recently cornpilcd historic data sets. The Thepreceding pages have told the story potential for widespreadanoxia is small, of a long history of abuse in upper especially in light of increased dissolved NarragansettBay, In contrastto thc previous oxygen concentrationsin the upperreaches centuryof industrialand municipaldischarges of thc bay,a trendthat may continueas BOD into the bay, recent efforts at pollution loading is further decreased, abatcmcntare resultingin improvedwater Theoverall conditions in theupper bay qualitythroughout most of thebay. In fact, suggestthat it is improving asa viableaquatic the biennial review on the State of the State' s habitat.Recent reports of increasedspecies Waters988!, reportedthat 90% of coastal diversityin theProvidence River, coupled watersmeet the fishable-swimmable goals of with improvementsin waterquality, suggest the Qean Water Act. that the upperbay, oncethe most heavily Metals except for copper! and toxics pollutedsection, is undergoingimprovement generallydo not occurat levelsexceeding that speciesare respondingto. Certainly EPA chroniccriteria throughoutmost of the problemsand concerns still exist, asoutlined bay,andrecent trends show dccreasedloading in Chapter2, and many will continueto by bothindustrial andmunicipal dischargers. persist,but greatimprovement has been made Loadingsof BOD andTSS are significantly in the ovcraHquality of NarragansettBay reduced &om levels in the mid-1970s and waters since the early 1970s. It is only show continued improvement. Nutrient reasonableto assumethat as public awareness, loadings from rivers have decreasedin the public concern, scientific knowledge, and last decade and concentrations drop to technologicalcapabilities increase,further relativelylowlevels southof Conimicut Point. improvementin thc watersof Narragansett Bay will occur. Chapter 6 Trends in Water Quality in Mount Hope Bay 8'cknow almost nothing about how Mount Hope Bay and Narragansett Bay interact. Wc know thata goodbit ofpollution enters from Fali River and upstream into thcTaunton River. Our friendsinMassaehuscttsarc trying hard to cicanup. Noncthcless, a iot of matcriaicntcrs and wehave no idea how much of it getsfrom Mount Hope Bay into Narragansett Bay.

Dr. Scott Nixon, 1987 Introductoryremarks at a NOAAEstuary-of-the-Month Seminar

Mount Hope Bay is a large is still an active port and receives northeasterlysection of NarragansettBay approximately 50% of the tanker traffic Figure 6,1!. The bay has a surfacearea of enteringNarragansett Bay. 35.2km2,46 km of shoreline,and an average Just as Fall River's historical depthof 5.7 m, giving thc baya toadvohme developmentparalleled that of Providence, of 201.7 x 10 m3 Chinman and Nixon, Mount Hope Bay experienceda history of 1985!.Seventy percent of MountHope Bay pollutionsimilar to thatof upper Narragansett lies in Rhode Island, and 30% in Bay,used as a convenientreceptacle for both Massachusetts. industrial and human waste products The major tributary of Mount Hope Brubakerand Hamblett, 1989!, The city of Bayis theTaunton River, whichoriginates in Fall River was the major polluter of Mount the stateof Massachusettsand provides 34% Hope Bay waters,and, asin Providence,the of thefreshwater input to NarragansettBay. construction and upgrading of scwagc TheMount HopeBay watershedcovcrs1,476 treatmentfacilitics laggedfar behind the need. km' and90% of thefresh water flowing into Fromearly industrial times through 1983, the MountHopeBay originates in Massachusetts.city of Fall Riverdischarged partially treated The coastal region of Mount Hope or raw wastes into the Taunton River and Bay is dominatedby the city of Fall River, Mount Hope Bay. situated on the bay's northeasternflank Despite its long history of water Figure 6.1!. Thc history of thc city of Fall quahty degndation and its connection to River parallelsthat dcsaibedin Chapter3 for NarragansettBay, Mount Hope Bay has the city of Providence,but on a smaUerscale. historicallybeen perceived as havinglittle The city developedas a New Englandmill interactionwith or impacton Narntgansett town, and, as in Providence, the textile Bay. Little attentionwas given Mount Hope industry once dominated the region's Bay, perhapsbecause most of Mount Hope economics. Today the city maintains thc Bayisin anotherstate' s jurisdiction,orperhaps characterof an old New Englandmill town, because there was confusion over whether with a number of textile mills refurbished waterQowing from MountHope Bay affected into historic sitesand retail shops.Fall River the rest of NarragansettBay. Partof Mount 68 Chapter 6

Rgure 8.1 Mount Hope Bay, showing location of the FaN River CSOs solid circfesj and two municjaal wastewater treatment facilities discharging to the bay and Taunton River. Size of the indicator circles is not representativeof dischargevolumes, which are pnuvidedin the figure legend. From RIGIS f990!. Mount Hope Bay: Water Quality Trench 69

Hope Bay watersinteract with the Sakonnet valueof $5.3million, remainpermanently River, which is fully tidal, connects with closed due to high coliform bacteria Rhode Island Sound, and by definition is not concentrationsin overlying waters. Present a true"river", and part flows under the Mount major contributors of coliforrns are Fall River Hope Bay Bridge to the East Passageof CSOs and the Taunton, Lee' s, Cole, and Narragansett Bay. This confusion led to the Quequechanrivers Figure 6.1!. exclusion of Mount Hope Bay from most Problems in the Lee's and Cole rivers studiesand reports pertaining to Narragansett apparentlyresultfrom failed individual septic Bay waterquality andthe overaH dynamics of discharge systems ISDS!, which cause the estuary. excess nutrients, eutrophication, and It was not until the 1980s that Mount numerousfish kills in thoserivers Brubaker HopeBay wasincreasingly studied. It is now and Hamblett, 1989!. generallyrecognizedthat the majorinteraction A major contributor of coliform of Mount Hope Bay was with Narragansett bacteria to the Taunton River is the Somerset Bay not with the Sakonnct River, which in POTW,which until recentlyhas operated in facthas so little interactionwith Mount Hope violation of its permit for a variety of Bay that it is better considered an arm of constituents,including coliforms Brubaker RhodeIsland Soundrather than an integral and Hamblett, 1989!. Thc Somerset POTW partof thebay's dynamics. Mount HopeBay has recently undergonean upgrade to ~ater quahty has the potential to influence secondary waste treatment, which will water quality in NarragansettBay and vice presumablyreduce its impactonthc Taunton versa, and Mount Hope Bay should bc Rive' in thc near future. consideredmore critically aspartof theentire The contributionof coliforms by the NarragansettBay system. Fall River CSOsaccounts for frequentand/ or permanent closurcs of shellfish and Water Quality Concerns swimmingareas. Coliformsenter the bay notonly during periods of hcavyrainfall but As the largesturban center on Mount also during dry weatherconditions, due to a Hope Bay, the City of Fall River hastherefore poorly maintained CSO network Roman, been, and continues to bc, the focus of most 1989!. Clogging of connectionswithin the water quality problems. Presentday water CSOnetwork causes backup andoverflowo quality concernsfocus on poor waterquality wastewaterduring dry weather conditions conditionsdue to fecalcoliformcontarrimation Brubaker and Hamblett, 1989!. Because of swimming/shellfish-bed areas, and dryweathcrdischargesarcconcentrated, they concentrations of metals found in sediments exceed wet weathercoliformconcentrations. and hard clams. Foodand Drug Administration FDA! studies have concluded that 95% of the coliform Bacterhl Coabtamtnllon contaminationentering Mount Hope Bay originatesGem CSOs on theTaunton Rive, Fecal coliform pollution is thc which provide over 1 billion gaUonsof uppermostconcern for watcrqualityin Mount untreated wastes each year Rippcy and Hope Bay at present. Large tracts of hard Watkins, 1987!. clam beds, estimated at a present market Chapter 6'

In trent years, studies have been Tabooed.1Concentrations of various metafsin conducted to determine the extentof the CSO seawater and hard clan tissues from Mount HopeBay, FromRfppey and Watfrins,1987! problem and to recommend plans for upgradingthe system. In 198~7, several Seawater Clam Concentration Tissue CSOswere cleaned, repaired, and upgraded Metal ppb! lLg/g! bythe city of FaURiver. This will presumably cu 1.4 16,3 conecta majorportion of the dry weather Ni 2.1 14.9 CSOinput to MountHope Bay. Plansarc Cd 0.1 0.7 Zn N.D. 178.0 currently being made to upgrade the wet Cr 0.2 3.6 Pb 0.3 3,1 weatherCSO capacity to storewater for later Ag 0.02 N.D. treatmentat a municipaltreatment facility Hg 16.0 p~ o.56 Brubaker and Hamblctt, 1989!. molar Implementation of these plans would H,D. no data available essentiallystop CSO input to MountHope Bay,resulting in a modelsystem if it worksas expected,and would greatly improve the in hardclam and water column samples faH overall waterquality of the bay, allowing below federal alert levels, mercury hardclam beds to beopen to shellfishing. contaminationis notimpeding present use of thc bay. Toxlce Contanlnatlon Small amountsof other metals,such as zinc, copper, nickel, and lead, exist in Metal concentrations in sediments of Mount Hope Bay sedimentsand in thc water Mount Hope Bay. are a potential concern, column, but none hasbecttmeasured inexcess especiaHyinregard tosheHftshconsumability. of federalalert levels Rippeyand %'atkins, Mercurycontamination has beena major 1987;Table 6.1!. Like mercury, these metals concern. Mercury inputs to the Taunton continueto bea concernbut do not at present River by ICI America an industrial impedeuse of the bay. manufacturer!as high as 7 poundsper day PCBs, pesticides, and petroleum were recorded into the 1970s. Levels of hydrocarbonsaxe aH presentin measurable mercuryin sedimentsate high,.onaverage quantiticswithin MountHope Bay sediments, exceeding2 ltg/gdry weightand reaching a but are not found at or above federal alert nuudmumof 7.5 gg/g dry weight. Recent levels in hard clam tissues Pruell and mercurydischarges are reduced, but elevated Norwood,1989!. levels in both the water column and the sedimentsraise concernsfor long-term Trends in Pollutant Loadlngs accumulations of this toxin in sheHfish. Hard clam tissues measured in 1986 showed mercury concentrations below the FDA guidclinc for clamtissue! of 1 ppm Ptatt, During the 1950s,the city of Fall 1988!.Duc to itspotential for harmfulhealth Riverinstaneda sewer system that intctcepted effects, mercury will remain a concern in wastewaterdischarges to the TauntonRiver, MountHope Bay. However, bccausemercury delivering themto thc Fall River POVW for inputs have beenreduced and concentrations treatment Brubakcr and Hamblctt, 1989!. Mount Hope Bay: 5'ater Quality Trends 71

The sewer system was designed to boththe Lee's and Cole rivers, but according accommodatesanitary flow only; any greater to Brubaker and Haxnblett 989!, this flow wasdiverted to MountHopeBay thxough pxoblemis being studied and will beremedied CSOs.The CSOproblem has therefore been oncestudies are comp1cted. The Quequechan presentin Mount Hope Bay for nearly 40 River,on the other hand, is severelypolluted years,and the ixnpactfrom the CSOnetwork with fecal coliforms from three CSO outfalls has increased over time. As the CSOnetwork onits banks.A surveycompleted in 1987by aged,it wasnot maintained in goodworking Rippey and Watkins found coliform levels order,and eventually it degradedtothe point indicativeof raw sewage.Plans to remedy of divertingsewage and runoff duringdry theQuequechan River pollution pxoblem are weatherperiods, further increasing the included in those for the entire Fall River pollutantload received by Mount Hope Bay. CSO system. At present, 11% of the total wastewater enteringthe Fall Rivercollection systemis PQTWI divertedto MountHope Bay aswet weather overflow MaguircGxoup, 1987!. The pollutant-loading history for treatmentfacilities discharginginto Mount Rivets HopeBay andits tributariesis similar to that seen for the Providence and Seekonkrivers The patternof pollutantloading for secChapter 4!. PCIPW'dischargesintoMount rivers varies.Some rivers, like the Taunton, HopeBay generallyconsisted of partially haveshown improvementwith time, while treatedor raw sewageuntil the1970s,when others.Ukc the Lee' s, Cole, and Quequechan some new facihties were constructed and have degradeddue to failureof ISDS and other aging facilities were upgraded to CSOsystems. The Taunton River, the bay's secondarytreatment. Of 12 municipal majortributary, historically carried the largest treatmentplants in operationin the Mount pollutantburden of allxivers to Mount Hope HopeBay watershed during 1971, only four Bay. Intothe early 1950s, the river was used compliedwith EPA xegulations Brubaker asaxeceptacle for untreatedwastes from both andHamblett, 1989!. During 1983the Fall industriesand municipahtics, Riversewage treatment facility was upgxadcd With the initiation of industrial to secondarytreatment, and water quality pretreatment and secondarymunicipal impxovcdinadjacent waters, Sinceits upgrade treatment,the load of pollutantscarried by tosecondary treatment, the Fall RiverPOTW the TauntonRiver decnmcd, particulaxiy for hasgenerally operated within compliance of fecalcoliforms. Currently the Taunton River feden6discharge levels for all monitored provides less than 4% of the total fecal constituents Brubakcr and Hamblett, 1989; coliforminput to Mount Hope Bay Roman, FallRiver PI3TW plant records 1983-1989!. 1989!. The Fall RiverFIB'PiV is the largestsewage Otherrivers, such as the Lec's, Cole, treatmentfacility discharginginto Mount and Quequcchan, have become more HopeBay, and its xecoxdof dischargesince importantas sourcesof pollutantsto Mount theinitiation ofsecondary treatmentisdetailed HopeBay. Individualseptic system failures in thefollowing paragraphs and illustrated in haveaccounted for recentproblems along Figure6.2. 72 Chapter 6

Annual Seasonal 1.3x10 ~ 1.2x10 Rgttre 6.2 Average annual y ~ 1.1x10 and seasonal trends ol SkQ 1.0x10 variouspollutant discharge Q.ox10 volumes for the Fall River = a.ox10' STP. The facility was 7.0x1or converted to secondary sewage treatment during 4000 1962. Data from plant CO 3500 operation records.

4 Ig 2500 O~ As shown in Figure 2000 6.2, levels of TSS in 1500 the facility discharge 60 show some correlation 50 to tiine of year, with 40 30 lowest values in 20 summer and highest m 10 winter and spring. 0 BOD levels appear 1.5x10is more distinc tly aN~1.0X14 seasonal,with peaks +4 g + 5.0x10" occurring from November through O.ox10 March and minimum I 5 I I 5 S I 5 I +~~i julpga valuesreached during ~ ~ u u s ~ a a summer months. Both TSS and BOD appear The FaHRiver municipalwastewater to follow a seasonaltrend that correlates with treatmentfacility begansecondary treatment effluentdischarge flow rates,all presumably in 1983when upgrading was completed. Its correlated to rainfall. first two yearsof operationas a secondary Three effluent metals copper, treatmentfacility showedreductions in total chromium, and zinc arc monitored on a suspendedsolids TSS! and gcneraHylow continuousbasis by the Fall River treatment levelsof BOD loading. From 1985to 1987, facility. Averageannual loadings of all three a majorincrease in BOD loadingfrom the have increased since 1983 Figure 6.2!. facilitywas observed, followed by a decreaseChromium shows a steady decreasefrom during 1988 and 1989, but not to 1985 levels. 1983to 1986,but thena rapidincrease from Since 1985, TSS in the FaH River treatment 1986tothe present. Zinc loadings are variable, facility dischargehas nearly doubled. Both but a doublingin loading hasoccurred since BOD and TSS laadings coaelatc weH to 1986 and thcsc elevated levels have since increaredflaw ratesfrom thc facility since beenmaintained. Copper exhibits a distinct 1985,although average annual BOD loading saw-toothedpatternin loading concentrations, hasdccrciisoisince 1987,indicating increased but has genet3ily increasedsince 1983. A plantefficiency in thetreatment process. sharpdrop in 1989levels has returned values

74 Chapter 6

Figure 6.9 Averageannual Annual and seasonal trends in Seasonal surface and bottom water temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen I 20 concentrations i n Mount HopeBay. 10

Hope Bay, although 5 average dissolved 32 oxygen concentrations remain above critical levels of 6.0 ppm Figure 6.3!. Dissolved oxygen values show a 24 rough inverse <4 correlation to average annual BOD loadings by the Fall River F pro O treatment facility, although the two 6 parameters are not 4 closelycoupled Figure g I I I I I I 4$isjx:* ji8$Jt 6.4!. Although average annual dissolved oxygen Inprganic Nittogen concentrationspose no potential threat to Nitrateis distinctly seasonalin Mount aquaticbiota, bottomwaters during summer Hope Bay, showing peak concentrationsin months exhibitconcentrations below the EPA early winter throughearly spring Figure valueof 6ppm classSA criteria! considered 6.5!. This is in agreementwith general toberequited for a healthyanddiverse aquatic estuarine patterns, reflecting the fact that flora and fauna Figure 6.3!. It is typical of nitrate is used by rapidly growing estuarinewaters to occasionallybecome phytoplanktonduringearly spring, isdepleted oxygen-depletedin summer,but hypoxic throughout the summer, and then is levels ppm!are known to bepotentially regeneratedduring fall andwinter. No long- stressfuland/or fatal to aquaticlife. termtrend is evidencedfor nitrate,although

3400 3200 g 3000 g0 Figure 6.4 Schematic of the y 2800 rela6onahipbetween 800 loading to 2600 hAwnt Hope8ayandambientdfaaotved oxygen concentrations. showing the g 2400 imperfectnegatfveoorreiationbetween 2200 the two paraIttetera. 2000 1N0 6 i963 iae4 iaSS ~966 F987 ~ass Mount Hope Bay: Water Ouaijty Trends 75

Artnual Seasonal Figure 4.$' A verage annual and seasonal trends in surface and g 30 bottom w'ster silicate, nitrate, and phosphate cv2P concentrations in Mount Hope Bay. Monitoringof 10 nutrients was discontinued after the 1985 sampling year. 18 1S 312 inorganic Phosphate 0 Average 3 annual phosphate concentrations in Mount Hope Bay g 4 show an overall decreasing trend, 22 despite a large peak during 1980 Figure 6.5!. This anomalous I ssilil49i f!=*B3$5 ak is due to hi h

concentrations concentrations seem to have gcncrally observedthroughout the spring andsummer decreasedsince peaking in 1982 Figure6.5!. monthsof 1980, but not seenduring 1979 A similar patternis scenfor total dissolved Figure 6.7!. While 1979 was a year of inorganicnitrogen DIN!in MountHope Bay typicalprecipitation, 1980 was abnormally Figure6.6!, with themain difference being wet. Sincemost sewagetreatment facilities a very high DIN value recordedfor 1984, accountfor largeinputs of phosphate Olsen whenammonia levels werc greatlyelevate and Lee, 1979!, it may bc assumedthat Thecause for thisincrease in ammonia,which is reflectedin all stationssampled by Marine Researchduring Novemberof 1984 Marine Research,Inc., 1985!,is notknown forcertain, Q 20 Possiblythe elevatednitrogen values seen in g 15 Surface 1984were due to a temporaryshutdown of N10 theFall River treatmentfacility or someother Bosom episodic event. After the 1985 sampling 0 season,nutrients were no longer sampledby I I I I Mame Research,Inc. Ftggure44 Toads in dissoNedineyanic nitrogenin surf' and bottom sraters8 Mount Hope Ssy over time. Alhough quite vanable, the long tenn trend suggests a slight incrarase. Chapter 8

Figure d.7 Seasonal trends in phosphate concentra6onsfor Mount Hope Bay during wet 80! MountHope Bay is truly estuarine,and well and dry 9! years, showing a drarnatk increase in mixed, throughout its general extent, The phosphateavailability during wetyears. bay showsno indicationof anoxic potential, even during extreme conditions such as in 15 bottom waters averagedfor the month of >~<0 August, but may occur in localized areas suchas shallow bays and coves. Considering 0 IL thatdissolvedoxygenconcentrations areonly looselycorrelatedwith BOD load,itis dif6cult to determinewhat effect, if any,the present BOD load to the bay has upon dissolved oxygen concentrations. Eutrophication does not seem to be a increasedflow throughthe PCVPV, as well as presentproblem for MountHope Bay. Figure CSO and river discharges,account for the 6.8shows the ratio of DIN to PO,found in abnormallyelevated 1980 phosphate values. Mount HopeBay as compared to theRedfield Likenitrate, phosphate exhibits a high Ratioof 16:1.The majority of thepoints fall degreeof seasonalityin MountHope Bay, to theright of theRedfield Ratio, indicating beingutilized rapidly by the flora and fauna thatnitrogen is limiting in MountHope Bay during early spring,recycled throughout the while phosphateis not, which is in general summer,and regenerated during late fall and a~~ancnt with Kremer and Nixon's 978! winter Figure6.5!. The seasonalityobserved andNixon andPilson's 984! findingsfor in Figure6.5 may be somewhat exaggerated NarragansettBay. The pattern of seasonal dueto thehigh phosphateconcentrations that availability for the two nutrients i.e., occurred during the summer and fall of 1980. phosphatebecomes available rapidly after initial depletionwhereas nitrogen remains Silcttte depletedand hmiting throughoutthe summer Average annual concentrations of silicate show a slight debase hem 1975 through 1980, after which time silicate shows 140 an overall increase Figure 6.5!. Silicate is ~120 ~choo alsoseasonal in MountHope Bay, showing a 80 peakin Julyand again in earlywinter Figure Z 60 6,5!. The observedseasonality of silicate is 0 40 20 more closely linked to diatom blooms than to 0 PCU%'dischargeorriverflow seefollowing 0 5 10 'fs section!. PO pM!

PotantlNifor Eutroph|eltlon and Anoxia RyuredA Cornpantsonoftotafnlttoyenandphosphate for Mount Hope Bay to that iateailizedbythe Redfietd Ratioof 18 H!:t P!, indicatingthat nitnrgenis lin3ftfng Observationsof nutrients,dissolved in the system as is typical of estuarineand coastal oxygen,temperature, and salinity showthat maine watas. Mount Hope Bay. Water Quality Trends

and fall months Figure 6.5! also indicates 350 that nitrogen is limiting while phosphateis not. Na reports of algae blooms or other Vi conditions considered typical of m~5 f00 a, eutrophication are noted in the 1itcrature for

Mount Hope Bay, =10 O E I Biological Trends 50 g 5 O Phytopfankton Diatoms are generally considered to be a major portion of thc dict of copepods, which in turn are important in the diet of larval fishes. Diatom abundance shows Rgure tt.t0 Seasonalrelatbnshy betweendiatom distinct peaksduring a yearly cycle, being and cqoepodabundances in Mount Hope Bay near greatestin early spring and early fall sce Spar Island. Hote the close correlation and the ciassic Iagpattern between the predator copepefsi and prey Figure6.10!. This patterncoincides with the diatomsi, patternof springand fall diatomblooms that is commonlyobserved inestuaries throughout in the bay. temperate latitudes, During the years 1975 to 1982, Thtoughout the years 1975to 1985, fiagellateabundance in Mount Hope Bay little overall changeis scenin the average remainedrelatively constant Figure 6.9!. annualabundance of diatomsin Mount Hope During 1983and 1984,however, a nearly7- Bay, Surprisingly, thc diatom abundance fold increasein flagellateabundanceoccurred, generally doesnot correspondvery well to followhiby a decreasein 1985.Since Marine silicate availability in Mount Hope Bay Researchceased sampling phytoplankton as Figurc6.9!. This lackof correlationsuggests of January1986, it is not known whetheror thatsilicate is very abundant, and not limiting not fiagellatcabundance has remained high or decreased. The data for 1982-86 show that the increasein flagellatesdid not occurat the Dialema 0 Ii! expenseof diatom abundance,as nught be expected if nitrogen enrichment and Flaesllsaa eutrophicationwere occurring and resulting t /I! in speciescomposition changes. 10 so yM| Zooplankton Copcpodsare an important part of the I I I I 5 I zooplankton community, especially in plankton-basedsystems Kremer andNixon, RpureC,OTiendein dbttornandttapaliateabundances in Mount Hope say. Note the tacit of asrrelatton 1978!.Theirabundanccisdistlnctlyscasonal between silicate concentrations and diatom and correspondsto diatom abundancesin abundances,sugpesting that ~ is not Iim/5ngin bay waters. Mount HopeBay Figurc 6. 10!. Since1975, a general decreasein copepod abundance 78 Chapter 6

120 ct 4000 100g I Hg4tre 5.1t Long-term trendsin the abundances of the two most dominantspecies of copeiaod.and total copepe$s,sampled at Spar 1000 Island. The pattern suggests competition between A. otausland 0 0 other copepodspecies, as well as 1874 1878 1878 $880 1882 188I 1888 along-termdeciinein total cqoepod abundancein MountHope Bay.

story. Moreover, the occurredin Mount Hope Bay Figure 6.11!. databasecovers a relativelyshort period of This trend howeverdoes not agreewith that time,making it difficult to distinguishtrends observedfor diatorns Figurc 6.9!. A lack of from simplelong-term natural cycles in both further sampleslimits the assessmentthat nutrients and biota. can be tnade concerning shifts in phytoplankton assemblagesand resultant Ichthyoplankton changes observed in the zooplankton Sinceat least 1975, Mount Hope Bay comlllunlty. ichthyoplanktonhas been dominated by thc Both of the two most abundant Northern anchovy, which has exhibited an copepodspecies in Mount Hope Bay show overall declinesince 1976 Figure 6.12!. overall declines since 1978 Figure 6.11!. Other abundantlarval fish speciesare the Since diatoms do not show the same trend as winter flounder and sand lance. Neither of thc copepods,other reasons for thedecline of thesespecies shows areadily apparent pattern thesezooplankters must be operating. Other of increase:or declinesince 1975 Figure factors, such as salinity, temperature,and 6.12!. dissolvedoxygen, all showdecreasingtrends, Whetheror notdecreasing patterns in which may be resulting in changesin the larval fishabundancesare related to decreases foods availablc to zooplanktersin Mount in copepodabundances and/or increasesin Hope Bay, or a combinationof theseeffects flagellatesand other plankters is notreadily maybecausing the apparentcopepoddecline. apparent. If copepodsarc the predominant Unfortunately,the sampling of planktonwas food and energysource for a speciesof fish terminatedas of January1986, leaving a gap larvae, then decteascs in larval abundances in the most recentevents of the copepod may be basedupon food web dynamics.

Hgute d.t2 Trends in the abundaltces of the three most dom~larvaifkshee collected in Maunt Hope Bey near Spar Island,shotvinggreatv«rfsihNy but kNe evidenceof Iong tenn trends. Note that «bvndanoe 50 of NorthernAnchovy is 8X the Y~ls valve. 1974 1970 1078 1080 1082 1984 1985 1088 1000

80 Chapter b

Jeffries et al. 988! noted an influx of adult winter flounder into 25000 NarragansettBay duringearly winter, followed by a departurebefore the onset of warm surnrnerwater temperatures. Figure6.14 shows that the major influx of winter flounder into Mount Hope Bay occurs from March to May, with 5000 mostflounder having left thebay by the beginningof July. Thistrend generally 2000 agreeswith thepattern noted by Jeffries

et al., further supportingthe idea that 1500 both flounder populationsarise from a

singlestock, but also suggests that winter 'tMO flounder utilize Mount Hope Bay later in the season, possibly a result of immigration from NarragansettBay.

Benthic Invertebrates The Ave most abundantspecies of benthicinvcrtcbrates collected in SparIsland Much ~ Polydara .... Exoyeo grabsamplcsare three polychactes Polydora, ~ure S. 1$ Trendsin the abundances of the five most Exogotre, Mediotttasttts!, onc bivalve dominantbenthic Invertebrates coliected near Spar Nrtcula!, and one arnphipod Ampelisca!. Isiand.Note the changein magnitudebeheeen the two mostabundant invertebrates and other spe6es. The Both Mediomastrtsand Ampelisca are found only species showing any apparent trend is in the benthos at numbers an order of iNecNvmetut,srhich shows aslightly Increasingtrend magnitudehigher thanany of theother three over time. mostabundant species. Of thesefivc species, of benthicinvertebrates declined nearly 60%, only Mediomastusexhibits any trend over followed by a resurgenceof diversity from time, andappears to be increasing Figure 1982through 1986. It is interestingto note 6.15!. In the caseof Mediotttasttts,great thatduring the time of decliningdiversity the variability between years occurs, but the total abundance of benthic invertebrates specieshas steadily incremxiin Mount Hope increased,nearly quadrupling between 1975 Bay nearSpar Island since at least1975. Thc and 1981 Figure 6.16!. It is often typical of abundanceof Atrrpeliscais highly variable stressed estuarine situations for species fromyear to yearin thebay, and is apparently abundanceto increasewhile speciesdiversity not inversely correlated to Mediotttastus declines. abundances Figure 6.15!. Interestinglyenough, the decline in Since 1975, the diversity of speciesdiversity occurred during the time invertebratespecies sampled at the Sparlsland period prior to the conversion of thc Fall station in Mount Hope Bay has decreased, River wastewater treatment facility to especially during the years 1975 to 1982 secondaryoperation in 1982. A distinct risc Figurc6.16!. Duringthis time the diversity in speciesdiversity is notedafter 1982 Figure Mount Hope Bay: Water Quality Trencfs 81

40 Figure S.t8 Trends in the 35 number of individuals and species diversityin Mount Hope p 30 8ayover time. Spect'es diversity <25 begins to increase after a 2f 20 decline through 1982, which corresponds with the time the 515 Fail River S TP began 10 operations as a secondary treatmentfacility. Note that as 5 0 species diversity increases, the number of individuals total 1974 1978 1978 1988 1982 1984 1988 1988 1990 biomass!decreases.

6.16!. The total number of invertebrates managementof this economically valuable seemsto haveremained relatively stableover resource. this time period. This suggeststhat degraded Theobserved changes in planktonic conditionsmay have been responsible for the assemblagesmay also have some implication decline in benthic invertebrate diversity, for future Mount Hope Bay hard-clam allowing for more opportunistic speciesto abundances.Prattand Campbell 956! found becomenumerous. Once degraded conditions fastergrowth in hardclams feeding on diatorns were easedby secondarytreatment at the Fall than in those feeding upon flagellates. River facility, less opportunisticspecies of Although it is uncertain whether or not invertebrateswere able to repopulateMount diatomsare decreasing in MountHope Bay, Hope Bay, increasingspecies diversity once flagellates have increasedin recent years, again. The short-term nature of the database which could potentially stress the used to arrive at this conclusion however, establishmentof an already very limited leavesthis speculativesince longer term juvenilepopulation of hardclams in thebay. natural cycles of speciesabundances and diversityare not availablefor analysisand General Conclusions comparison. Hard clams are presently quite Mount Hope Bay appearsto provide plentiful in MountHope Bay, but investigators reasonablygood habitat, at leastwith regard have noted a lack of juvenile and small to nutrients and dissolved oxygen individuals in the bay's high-density concentrations. Nutrient concentration populations, raising questions about the patterns from 1975 to 1985 show little recruitment of new individuals into those indicationof eutrophicationwithin the bay populationswhich consistmostly of older system. Phytoplankton communities have individuals Pratt et al., 1988!. The length of sporadically alteredtheir compositionto timethe area has been closed to shellfishing increasedflagellate abundancesand back, since 1947!may havereduced recruitment although apparently not at the expenseof of juvenilesto certainareas, assuming that reducing absolute diatom abundance. adult clamsat high densityinhibit spat Whether or not theseshifts relate to decreases settlementor juvenile recruitment. Studies in benthicinvertebratediversityanddecreases arenow underconsiderationto testthe validity in abundances of fish larvae and adult of this argument, and to better plan the demersalfish populationsis unclear given 82

thecurrent database for Mount HopeBay. It andmay reflect further upon general trends is alsounclear how changes in bothphysical for better wastewater treatment and and biological parametersacct the overall managementin theregion, Increasedspecies dynamicswithin Mount Hope Bay. diversityin recentyearssuggests an improved Overall,Mount Hope Bay generally aquatic habitat, where pathogen resemblesNarTagansett Bay, with a major concentrations in the water column and in differencebeing the lack of a highlypolluted shellfish are the most common cause of use andrestricted region similar to theProvidence impairment of the resource. Correction of andSeekonk rivers, As in NarragansettBay, theFall River CSOs will alleviatethis problem waterquality conditions in MountHope Bay to a greatdegree, further improving water haveimproved in the recentpast; and much quality and the useof Mount Hope Bay's of this improvement may be attributed to resolifces. improvernentinthe Fall RiverPOViVeftluent, Chapter 7 Trends in Narragansett Bay Fisheries

Thestreams, bays, harbors, ponds and lakes were stocked withf'tsh, and rhe mud flats wereas yet undisturbed, hoarding unlimited stores of shellfisdown through the ages.

J. W. Haley, 1939 "The Old StoneBank History of RhodeIsland"

Narragansett Bay is considered this time. This suggestseither that water important habitat as spawningand nursery quality in the lower bay has not changed groundsfor a varietyof finfishes,in particular significantly in the past 30 years,or that the menhadenand winter flounder. The bay is changeshave been slight enoughto not cause alsothe home of oneof themajor fisheries for any planktonic response.Unfortunately, hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria! in the records do not extend further back in time, so United States. we cannotbe surewhether changes in water Although hard clams now constitute column biota, which could potentially affect themajorcommercial fishery in Narragansettfisheries,occurred prior to thc 1970s. Yct Bay,a varietyof specieshave been of major filter-feedingspecies have been prevalent in economicimportance in the past. Atlantic NarragansettBay throughout history, with salmon,alewife, oysters,and scallopsall somespecies, such as the bluemussel, having were oncemajor bay-basedfisheries, but all increasedin populationthroughout the 20th these fisheries have now been abandoned. century; implying that filter feeders have Menhaden, winter flounder, and lobster generally not been food-limited in continue to be fished commercially in NarragansettBay. It is thereforereasonably NarragansettBay, but mostlyon a limitedor safe to assume that there have been no small-scale basis. permanentchanges in plankton abundance The demise of these once-abundant and/or speciescomposition that have been fisheries has been blamed morc often than directlyresponsible for theobserved changes not on degradedwaterquality in Natragansctt in NatraganscttBay fisheries,and that food Bay, However, studies indicate that water sources to the bays fisheries are not qualityhas been improving in thebay during responsiblefor the long-term declines in thcpast 20 years.Relative to waterquality, fishery landings. recordsof phytoplanktonand zooplankton It is difficult to measure whether speciescomposition and abundanceshow natural abundancesof fish and shellfish have that these parameters have not changed changedover time in the bay. Although significantly over thc past three decades, recreationallandings are not tallied in the despiteimprovements in water quality during state of Rhode Island, two important 84 Chapter 7

commercial fishing centers exist within the collapsing by 1869. %hecollapse can be state: one in Newport, and a larger port at attributed to the salmon's loss of access to Point Judith, just outsideNarragansett Bay, suitablespawning grounds in upperreaches Commercial landing recordsdate back into of bay tributaries, All tributaries to the the early 1800sfor severalspecies of finfish, Providence and Seckonk rivers were d:utimed but observation of trends from commercial by theearly 1800sto providewater power for landings can be misleading, becausethe the region's burgeoning industrial needs commercialcatch does not necessarilyreflect Goode,1887!. Thisclosing of thetributaries the natural abundanceof the target species. atthe head of theestuary would have severely Market valueof a species,changes in fishing limited, if not completelyeliminated, access technology,and number of boatsand persons of salmonto thespawning beds upon which expendinga givenamount of effort in pursuit theywerc real. Althoughthe fishery was of a given species all affect the commercial not studied to any great extent before it landingrecords. To furtherconfuse the issue, collapsed,and referenceto dammingas a the record of commerciallandings does not causefor fishery collapse is anecdotal,the discriminatebetween those species caught adverse effect of river dams on salmonids is within the bay and those caught offshore, well documented for both Pacific Coast and often as far away asGeorges Bank, and then Atlantic salmon stocks. With no recruitment landedin ports in thc stateof RhodeIsland. occurring in NarragansettBay for Atlantic Although the commercial landing salmonpopulations, local extinction of the record is at best a distorted reflection of the speciesfrom thearea wasrapid and complete. true abundanceof a targetspecies, it is still Alewives, another anadromous fish useful when combined with more detailed species,commanded an extensivefishery in information concerningthc abundanceand NarragansettBay from the mid-1800sto the distribution of a species.Fortunately, trawl turn of thc century. But by the early 1900s surveys conducted by various state thisconunctcial fisherywasdecliningrapidl, departments,independent researchers, and and it was essentiallyabandoned by 1930 power plants provide several 2&25 year Figure 7.1!. This species,like the salmon, abundancerecords for finfish in Narragansett travels up thc estuaryto spawn,but it is not Bay seeTable 5.1!. Thesedata give a more as reliant as salmonupon gaining accessto accurate estimate of the distribution and theupperreachesof tributaries to successfully abundanceof finfish speciesin the bay, and reproduce.Although danmung of tributaries are usedto detail trendsin fisheriesduring may have influenced alewife stocks, the more recent times. fishery's failure is generally attributed to overfishing Goode,1887!, Duxing the spring Finfisherlel alewife runs, fish traps were placed throughoutNarragansett Bay, particularly in Anadmnot» Rat»rate thc Bastand West passages and the mouth of SakonnetBay. Thesefish trapswere often Atlantic salmon once constituted a placed so densely that it was virtually large portion of thc commercial catch in impossible for any alewives to reach the NarragansettBay. However, this fishery was upper bay without becominglodged in one very short-lived in the bay, completely Goode, 1887!. Alewives have not been Trends in Narragansett Bay Fisheries 85

Figure 7.1 Trends in the Rhode Island Alewife fishely since 1880,showing the steady decline in landings over time. Taken from Olsen and Stevenson 975!.

Migratory Rebels fishedon a commercialbasis in Narragansett Menhaden were an important Bay waterssince the fishery'scollapse. Since commercialfishery in the bay; and they and thelate 1950s,however, alewives have begun striped bassare the two migratory species to return to NarragansettBay in increasing that have been most extensively studied. numbers, and have often been noted in the Menhadentravel up and down the Atlantic Providenceand Seekonkrivers. Spawning seaboard,moving into estuariesand coastal now occursin sometributaries of thebay, and baysto spawnand to feed upon the plankton the speciesappears to be re-populatingitself abundantin theseregions. Narragansett Bay as a springtimevisitor to NanagansettBay is animportant spawning axea for this species; waters. especially the upper bay and Mount Hope Bay, where larval menhaden are found in Links to WaterQuality .their greatest abundances Matthiessen, It is apparent that the collapse of 1974!. Menhadenmove into bay watersin NarragansettBay fisheries for anadromous the early spring to spawn,and prior to 1880 speciesis not directly attributableto water their amval triggeredthe settingof fish traps quality degradation in the estuary. throughoutthe bay. As seiningbecame more Overfishing took a rapid toll on the popular,fish trapswere employed mainly at populations of thesefishes as they moved the mouth of the bay to catchthe fish asthey throughthe bay to spawn,and lossof access enteredthe estuary. to spawning areas, at least for salmon, Large harvests of menhaden were preventedthe rapidly depletedadult stocks takenprior to the turn of the century,but the &om replacingthemselves. In thecase of the fishery essentially failed in the late 1880s alewife fishety, waterquality degmhtion in Rgure7.2!. As with thealewife, overfishing theProvidence and Seekonk rivers may have by the numerousfish trapslining the shores causeda lossof suitablespawning habitat, of the bay apparentlycaused the fishery's butextraordinary fishing pressure apparently decline CiMde,1887!.The fishery hascycle was the main cause of the extinction of the since then but has not producedharvests to commercialfishery. rival those of the late 1800s even in most recent years. Menhaden fishing still takes 86 Chapter 7

frigure 7.2 Trends in the Rhode !stand menhaden fi sh ery since 1880, showingthe rapid decline of the fishery, with only sporadic landings after the turn of the century. Taken from Oisen and Stevenson t 975!.

placetoday, but mainlyby out-of-state vessels on overfishing of menhadenstocks in the whichfollow theschools of fish alongthe bay, which area inajorfood sourcefor these , Atlantic Coast. sportfish.However, Oviatt977} calculated Nicholson 971! notes that a decline the bioinass of striped bass, bluefish, and in themenhaden fishery all alongthe Atlantic menhadenand the percentage of menhaden seaboardduring the late 1960swas a direct eatenby thesetwo predatoryspecies during resultof increasedfishing pressures.Poor the 1975-76 season and concluded that stock recruitmentwas noted during the commercialfishing efforts for menhadenin decline,indicating that the Atlantic spawning NarragansettBay cannotaccount fordeclining stockwas below optimum size. Overfishing stocksof bluefish or striped bass,or for the of thestocks during this critical timeperiod leanyears often noted for thesespecies in the reducedthepotential breeding stock,resulting bay.Figure 7,3 shows landings of menhaden, in a declinein the fishery which to datehas bluefish, and striped bassin Rhode Island not revived itself. Oviatt 977! found the waters and reflects the lack of correlation 1976 year class of menhadenentering between menhaden and bass/bluefish Narragansett Bay to be immature fish abundances.The catch size limits imposed generally less than three years of age. for stripedbass over the pastsix yearshas Apparentlythese fish wereunable to spawn, resultedin recentdramatic improvements in contributing further to the decline of the the condition of the stock, and increases in fishery. Increased fishing effort for sizeof fish, aswell astheir overall abundance. menhaden,intensifying when the West Coast anchovyfisheries failed during the 1970s, Leks to Water'Quaft'ty couldaccount fordepleted stocks, considering The patternsof abundanceexhibited the 80% captureefficiency reportedfor by exploited migratory fish speciesin NarragansettBay purse seiners Ganz,1975!. NarragansettBay do not seem to becaused by Bluefish and striped bass are also waterquality degradation.The plight of the migratoryspecies, and although they are of striped bass has been widely studied and only limited commercial importanceat publicized,and their declineis apparently present,both are extremelydesirable and due mainly to habitat degradationin their importantas part of the sportfisherycatch. majorspawning areas e.g., Chesapeake Bay Local sportfisheanenhave tendedto blame and the HudsonRiver! rather than to local poor yearclasses of bluefishand striped bass conditionsin NarragansettBay; although Trends in IVarragansett Bay Fisheries 87

Figure 7.3 Rhode island landings of menhaden, bluefish, andstripedbass since 1945, showingthe lack of relationship between menhaden abundances and those of bluefish and striped bass. Taken from Ovi att 977!.

are caught by commercial trawlers outside of the bay, the winter flounder is dependent 0. LJ Q uponthe bay for spawningsuccess and early life stagedevelopment. Therefore population CI Z trends that may be due to changesin water quality would be more likely to show up in I0 CI flounder than in other less bay dependent finfish. 0 An excellent long-term record of winter flounder abundanceexists in weekly I0' trawl samplescollected by researchersat the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.The trawl sampleswere initiated in 1959 and have continued on a 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 weekly basisusing similar methodsthrough YEAR the present day. The GSO trawl survey collects from two stations: Fox Island, located north of the JamestownBridge, and Whale fishing pressure in Rhode Island may Rock, where the bay meets Rhode Island exaggeratethe stress upon the speciesby Sound Figure 1.1!. Due to the long duration furtherreducing the potential breeding stock. of thesurvey and the consistency of sampling The modernintensive fishery for menhaden, methods,this databaseprovides an excellent not only in NarragansettBay but aHalong the opportunity to observe winter flounder Atlantic seaboatd,apparently depleted the abundancesover three decades, without the parentstock to thepoint of poor breedingand vagariesintroduced throughcommercial catch recruitment success,causing a collapse of records. menhadenfisheries up anddown theAtlantic The winter flounder exhibits strong coast. Water quality degradationapparently seasonalityin thepattern of its abundancein was not a directcause of this collapse. the bay; adultstravel into the estuaryduring latefall andspawn in theupper estuary during Bay-Based Flsherles late winter andearly spring Jeffrieset al., in press; Figure 7.4 - bottom!. The adults then The winter flounder move offshore for the summerto complete Psettdopleuronectesamericanus!, the only the annual cycle Saila, 1961!. Juveniles and commercially valuable finfish resource that larvae are found in great abundancein the is bay-basedfor at leastpart of its life cycle, upperbay andProvidence River Matthiessen, is also an important component of the 1974!. The larvae are most abundant in the recreationalcatch. Although most flounder upper bay during summer months, a time 88 Chapter 7

whenwater quality is typically at its seasonal 20 worst i.e., highest temperature, lowest ~~ alt 17.5 dissolved oxygen!. Qg 15 A survey conductedby Jeffries and m ~ 12.5 Johnson 974! found an 869o decline in 10 relative abundance of winter flounder between I a,.5 1968 and 1974 Figure 7.4 - middle!. The g CJ speciesthen increaseduntil 1979, when it 2.5 enteredanother decline lasting through 1986 Jeffries and Terceizo, 1985; Jeffries et al., 1988!. Commercial catch records Figure 7.4- top!, thoughthey include flounder caugh both inside and outside Narragansett Bay, 2500 reflect the sameoverall patteniof abundance 2000 1500 shown in the Fox Island trawl surveys, ~ p 1000 suggestingthat the pattern of abundancein 500 NarragansettBay was also noted in other 0 + fishing areas, and that the causeof these SNIP!am changes were representative of winter

flounder populationsin the region. % cs Although the causesfor thesecycles ~ 200 are not fully known, Jeffries and Terceho 985! suggestthey are a resultof climatic warming andpredators in NarragansettBay. Jeffries and Terceiro's conclusion cold winters mean good flounder recruitment; Rsvpy 5 f tall5 s warmwinters poor is supportedby Buckley and Caldarone's988! finding that young- of-the-year winter flounder growth and condition are a function of the local Ffgttre 7A Trends in Rhode Island winter flounder abundance since 1958 for commercial Rhode Island! environment and not pollution-related. and monitoring trawl landings conducted in Neorrtysis americana, an epibenthic mysid Narragansett Bay, both which reflect fishing effort. that is a predatorof larval andjuvenile winter Note the similarity between commercial landings top! and trawl sunrey landings middle!. Seasonal abun- flounder, shows an opposing pattern that dance of winter flounder in Narragansett Bay is also is, better growth in warm winters Jerries shown bottom!. Data from NMFS catch statistics and Jeffries et al. 988!. andTerceiro, 1985!. Therefore, warm winters may bring not only poor spawningsuccess, predators,for winter flounder abundancein. but alsoincreased predation byN. arttericana NarragansettBay. Their model can predict due to early larval set of flounder. Recent fute abundancesover shorttime spanswith yearshave seenmilder winters overall, which 60 75% accuracy. It correctly predictedan may affect winter flounder recruitment in increasein abundanceduring 1987, and should upcomingyears. Jeffrieset al. in press!have beuseful in short-tennfuture managementof developeda model,based upon climate and this speciesin the bay. TrendS ltl NarraganSett Bay FiSherieS

produceenough young that could successfully Links ta IVater Ouality run the gamut of dams,predators, diseases, Of all the finfish speciesdescribed in and generally degradedconditions to survive this chapter, the winter flounder would be and reproduce. For migratory species,this expectedto be the most susceptibleto water pattern was evidenced up and down the quality degradation not only because Eastern Seaboard, further evidence that environmentallysensitive larval andjuvenile degradedconditions solely in Narragansett life stages are dependentupon the more Baywere not a likelycause of thecollapse of polluted upper bay, but also becausethe an entire species. flounderfeed upon bert thicorganisin, which For a variety of reasons, fishing aremost likely to containtoxins concentrated pressure for many non-sport species has in the sediments, Yet the observed decreasedtremendously in the past 30-50 fluctuations in winter flounder populations yearswithin Narragansett Bay. Technological seein not to be tied to the concentrations of improvementsin gearfrom handnets, to fish poHutantscommonintheupper bay. Buckle~ traps,to theotter trawl andpurseseine allowed and Caldarone 988! found no correlation for the more efficient harvest of finfishes in between juvenile winter flounder size, liver NarragansettBay andin offshorewaters. As weight,or biochemicalcomposition and any bay-basedfish resourcesbegan to bedepleted, known pollutant gradientthat hasbeen well new technology took the new fishing studiedin NarragansettBay seeChapters 4 technology offshore in search of more and 5!. Population fluctuations of winter abundantstocks.Inothercases forexample, flounder seem to be linked to cycles of the lobsterfishery new technologylured predatorsand to otherphysical variables that fisherinenoffshore to inorelucrative fishing aredriven by climaticchange in thebay. grounds,leaving NarragansettBay stocksto the smallercommercial operator. Summary F Inflaherlea Yet,in spiteof thisdecreased fishing pressure, rrtost species have not returned to Overall,it appearsthat water quality thebay in numbersclose to thosereported at degradationhas not been a majordetermining the heightof fishing success.The reasons for factor in the cyclesof abundanceobserved in this limited reboundare many, and differ for anyNarragansen Bay finfishcry. Thegeneral different species, but water quality in habitat degradationin the Providenceand NarragansettBay does not seem to be the Seekonkrivers, as evidenced by thereports liiniting factor. Migratory speciesstill move of filthy, and commonlyanoxic, conditions, up and down the Atlantic seaboard, mayhave assisted in speedingthe depletion experiencinga variety of water quality of fish stocksin thc late 19thand early 20th conditionsin their travels,and they are also centuries,but cannotbc cited as the major heavilyfishedin the openocean. Anadromous culprit in their demise over thc last three species still face a multitude of dams on the decades. tributaries of Narragansett Bay, keeping Thedriving blow that tumbled every spawninggrounds isolated from use.Prescrt t NarragansettBay finfishery except for winter work to restore stocks of anachomousfishes, flounderwas apparently overfishing to thc especially Atlantic salmon, through the point wherethe parentstock wasnot able to introduction of fish ladders in tributaries are 90 Chapter 7

experiencingonly limited success.Population consumerdemand that outpaced the ability abundanceof the winter flounder,the only of naturalpopulations to replacethemselves. true bay-based finfish of commercial Onceoysters began to bcimported to importance,seems to bedriven by therelated thebay, oyster spat were seeded for growout factorsof climate and predatorpopulations, mainly in the lower bay, harvestedwhen as well as fishing pressure, but not water ready,and then exported from the bay. Natural quality or otherwise perceived degraded oysterbeds in the SeekonkRiver were kept conditionsin the bay. open as public ground, but it was a.cornrnon practicefor commercialoyster growers to Shellfisheries removesmall oysters from this areato plant on privatelyleased tracts downbay. Thetwo mosteconomicailyimportant The practiceof downbaygrowout shellfish speciesin NarragansettBay have stetnmedfrom two causes:! since large historically been the American oyster areasof the best oyster-growinggrounds in Crassostreavirginia! and the hard clam theProvidence and Seekonk rivers werc open Mercenaria rnercenaria!. At present no to public harvest,oystermen could increase commercialfishery exists for oystersin theirprofit by removingoysters from public NarragansettBay waters, but hard clams tracts to private tracts downbay;and ! constitutea major bay-basedfishery. A oysterswerc moved to higher-salinitywaters number of other shcllfisheries have existed in becausethey grew betterthere, pmduced a NarragansettBay, on both comixeaial and better-flavoremeat, and lost the"greenish" recreational scales. At present, soft-shell meatcolor common to SeekonkRiver oysters. clams,blue mussels, several species ofconch, Harvestscontinued to slowly increase- andsurf clams are 6shedrccreationally within throughout the 1860 1880 period. A NarragansettBay. populationboom of starfishes,predators on oysters,caused a dropand leveling off in the The Oylter tnctuatry oyster harvestduring 1866and again in the late 1880s,but theindustry responded with Fromthe early 1880s to 1920,oysters starfish removal practices and recovered werethe most important shellfishcry within quickly. The oyster market continued to Narragansett Bay. Native oysters were gmw rapidly from 1890 through 1900 as originally used to feed swine or burned to demandfor succulentNarragansett Bay producelime, but by-1830two fisheriesfor oystersincreased. With this camerapid oysters existed: ! harvest by private expansion of the oyster-culturing system individuals who stored them and used them throughout Narngansett Bay. Great Bed for foodduring the winter, and ! harvestby once located south of Field's Point!, was one full-time comrticrcialoystermen who sold of thc prime oyster-growing sites. It was their product to shucking houses Kochiss, abandonedby 1895due to contarriinationof 1974!.The commercial harvest grew rapidly theoyster crop with the oily residueof the andnatural spawning stocks dwindled, to the coal gasificationplant, and was later filled in point where in thc 1860soyster seedstock theexpansion of theProvidcnceport facilities. hadto be imported from the Chesapeake Bay Theoyster industry moved further downbay, into NarragansettBay to keeppace with a away from the industrial sprawl and into Trends In Narragansett 8ay FIsherIes 91

~ 7000 I Rgure 7.$ Trendsin oyster 6000 and hard clam landings in c8 5000 Narragansett Bay since 1880. p 4000 Notethat the hardclan fishery .g 3000 does not begin to prosper in the bay until the oysterfishery g 2OO0 beganitsdemisein 1910. Data > 1OO0 from Reports to fhe Commis- 0 sioner of SheNisheries and 1880 1908 1933 1948 1954 1964 1974 1984 NMFS catch statistics. downbay sites where conditions produced hurricane, were more than the economics of betteroyster growth and flavor. the industrycould handle,and the oyster The lease of deep-water bottom industrycompletely failed in Narragansett opened the door for a major boom in the Bay. oyster industry between 1900 and 1910 Figure 7.5!. At the industry peak in 1910, Links to Water Quality more than 8,500 ha of bottom were leased for The oyster industry in Narragansett culture of imported oyster seed and more Bay dec1inedand became extinct primarily than 7,000 metric tons of oysters were for economicreasons the profit returnto harvested Figure 7.5!. Shortly afterwards, the oystermen was not sufficient to offset the the industrywent into a rapiddecline caused leasefees, seed stockprices, loss to predators, byseveral factors, primtirily financial. Rising and growout of their stocks in harder-to- lease fees becamean increasing financial worklower bay waters. Overfishing of natural drain as they rose over time. Longer hours stockinthe upper bay and habitat degradation wererequired to workthe now moreexpensive dueto dredgingand filling in theProvidence downbaysites, reducing the profit marginon and Seekonk rivers were also factors in the the harvestedoysters. Successiveyears of eventualdecline of the industry, poor spatsets in ChesapeakeBay and Long However, it must be stressed that the Island Sound between 1910 and 1920 drove oysterfishery in thebay was essentially a put- up theprice of importedseed stock, yet the and-take phenomenon. The upper bay, growershad no alternativesfor getting seed althoughonce having plentiful oysters,was stocksince Narragansett Bay's limited natural not conducive to oyster propagation and oysterstocks had been depleted in the 1880s recruitmentdue to its high salinity waters, byoverfishing.Ultimately, theoyster growing particularlyafter freshwater input to the upper processsimply becametoo unprofitable to bay waslimited by dammingof ail major sustain itself. tributariesforindustrial puxyoses, The natural Bothacres leased and landings were oyster stocks originally found in the upper reducedto levelsfound in the1880s, prior to bay could not supporta majorfishery due to thelarge expansion of theindustry Figures theseenvironmental constraints. The high 7.5!. A slight reboundoccurred during the salinity waters however, did provide good mid-1930s, but then the final two nails were conditionsfor the rapid growth of succulent put in the oyster industry's coffin: the oysters. The natural fishery thereforewas economic effects of the Great Depression, replacedwithmassive aquaculture operations andthe physicaldamage caused by the 1938 for thegrow outof oysterseed stock. Present 92 Chapter 7

day oyster stocks are very limited in A second marked increase in hard NarragansettBay, due to bothenvironmental clam landingsoccurred around 1974. This salinity!and habitat waterdepth! limitations increase was apparently due to the on propagationand recruitmentof juvenile introductionof a newharvesting technology: oysters. the bull rake. The bull rake allowedclammers to work a wider variety of bottom covers, The Marti Clam Fishery and, more itnportant, enabled them to work in deeper waters. With the advent of the bull Duringthe reign of theoyster industry, rake,the workable depth jumped from 13feet hardclams, although abundant and readily the maximutn depth that could be worked available,werc of secondaryimportance as a with handtongs! to 26 feet,increasing the commercial fishery; but after the failure of total amount of workable bottom available in the oyster industry in the early 1900s,hard thcbay by nearly a factoroftwo Pratt,1988!. clams became increasingly itnportant, Qamharvests peaked in 1984at 2,000 metric increasingfrom 907 metric tons landed in tons, and have since declined to 1,100 metric 1928 to 2267 metric tons in 1955. The tonsin 1989 Figure 7.6!. As of 1989,there substantialexpansion of thehard clam fishery were approxirnatcly 2,000 Rhode island duringthis period was related to theopening residentswho heldclamming licenses Figurc of newclamming areas where oyster grounds 7.6!. Of these,40% 800 people! were were formerly leased Pratt, 1988;Figurc employedin thehard clam fishery on a full- 7.5!. The initial growth of thc hard clam timebasis, thc remainder being part-time or fishery therefore, was a direct result of weekendclammers Migliorc, pers. comm.!. clamming on once unavailablebottom, as Someportion of therecent increase in well asa shiftin effort from theculturing of hard clam landingscan be attributed to the oysters to the harvest of natural clam conditionalopening of extensiveand densely populationsinNarragansett Bay. Thc harvest populatedclam bedsin the upperbay that of hard clams declined between 1955 and wereptcviously closed due to excessivefecal 1974,appaxently due to ovcr-exploitationof coliformcontamination. Presently, the water the stock, and possibly also to failure of the overthese beds is considetcdunsatisfactory depletedstocks to properlyrecruit Pratt, only during wet weatherperiods. When 1 1988!. inch or morc of rain is received within 24

Rgtre J,I Hardciamiandinga and sheiitiah licensee sotd since 195'0 in Rhode tstand. Licenses aoid are used aa a proxy to Nrrhingalas', but do not distinguishbetween part- I 1600 time and futi-time tisherrnen. Note the ciose correlation between etort and iandinga through1%ttt, when landtnge continue to ~ despite increased eNort Data from 0 NMFS catch statistics and 1555 1555 15N 1555 1510 1575 1550 1055 1555 RIDE she/Nshing permit records. Trends in Narragansett Bay Fisheries

hours,Conditional Areas A andB seeFigure upper bay other than the Conditionally 5.1! are closed to shellfishing for a 7-day ManagedAreas A and B!, and harvestsare period, If additional rain falls before the 7- expected,despite recent decreasesin clam day purge is completed, the beds remain landings,to remainstable at presentlevels. closedfor 10days following the mostrecent Recently,concern has been mounting rain event. When 0.5 to I inch of rain falls, over the potential of hard clams to harbor only Conditional Area A is closed. Because pathogenic viruses that are not detectable of this closing schedule,the conditionalbeds usingthe present analytical method for fecal in theupper bay are closed on average 50% of coliformtesting. If newpathogen indicators the year and havebeen for the last 20 years. areadopted, it is possiblethat this could lead The shellfishing area closures to closureof somecurrently open shellfish however,do not mean that shellfish are being beds,and adversely affect the fishery. These depletedby pollution. A recent hard clam changeshowever, despite theirpotential effect survey conducted in closed and conditional on the fishery, will not affect the abundance areasof theProvidence River and upper bay of hardclams, only theirmarketability. by Prattet al. 988! found clam distributions Concern has also recently been to besimilar to thosereported during earlier expressed about concentrations of metals in surveysin 1957 Stringer, 1959! and 1965 clam tissues, but metal contamination is Sailaet al., 1967!,indicating that 30 years of unlikelyto causesignificant problems to the exposure to upper bay pollutants has industryin lightof overalldecreases in metals apparentlynot affected hard clam population dischargedinto the bay as well as recent distribution. Pratt et al. 988! also found testing that showed metal concentrations in goodnumbers of smallerclams in theupper clam tissues to fall below both state and bay and ProvidenceRiver, suggestingthat federalalert levels for humanconsumption. conditions have been suitable for spat settlementin the recent past. The authors Links to A'ater Quality notesome size/growth limitations in sampled As with the oyster industry, water clams e.g., smaller than normal size at a quality affects the hard clam fishery by givenage!, which might be due to upperbay limiting the area available to the fishermen pollutantsor moreprobably to high clam whenwaters are not meetingfecal coliform densities within the beds. bacteriastandards, but apparentlyhas little Improvedwater quality in the upper direct effect upon the clams. The increases bay hasled to thesuggestion that someof the and decreases observed in the commercial conditionallyclosed clam beds be opened on landingsdata mainly reflect overfishing and a permanent basis. This idea has met with changes in technology, which are then muchopposition from the bay'sclammers, constrained by thc economic/political who claim that the openingof theseareas atmospheresurrounding the fisher, and the would causea glut of clam meats on the extent of bay bottom available for harvestto market,attract new fishermen, lower prices, clamrncrs on a continual basis. Further anddecrimse profits to thepoint wherethe evidenceof non-waterquality directed industry would no longer be a worthwhile changesis seenfrom the various studies that way to makea living. At presentno newareas showhardclam abundances have notchanged havebeen opened on a permanentbasis in the drarnaticallyinthe bay since the 1940s,despite very degradedwater quality during the late landingsrecorded, as is seen through declining 1940sin the upper bay, and a continual landingsin recentyears, despite increased improvementin waterquality since the start fishingeffort and the conditional opening of of the 1950s.Water quality in Narragansettonce permanently closed shellfish beds. The Bay can therefore be considered a factor effectthat water quality has on influencing which influenceswhere fishing effort is commercial landings of hard clams in expended,but does not directly influence NarragansettBay, if any, is maskedby the abundancesof hardclams in thebay. effortexpendedbyclarnmersandexploitation Over-exploitationof the hard clatn of hard clam resources. resource apparently drives the cotmnercial 95

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