Planning a Rain Garden? There's an App for That

Are you dreaming of spring? Here at Save The Bay, we are looking forward to getting back out in the field and helping folks plan and plant rain gardens all around the watershed. Just in time, the Connecticut NEMO program (also known as Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) has a great new app available at the Apple app store for planning rain gardens. The app helps you determine your soil type, the size of garden you will need, and the best plants for your location. It includes videos, diagrams and plant lists to help you along the way.

This week also kicks off the Rhode Island Spring Flower and Garden Show at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Save The Bay will have educational material, so stop by and get a copy of the Bay Friendly Backyards Shopping List. You can also download a copy of Bay Friendly Backyards on our website! Happy planning and happy planting.

A good New Year for Massachusetts dam safety

The Massachusetts legislature has approved a bill that will strengthen dam safety and provide a new loan fund to help remove and repair dams and coastal infrastructure. The bill has been in the works for many years and has taken several forms. This newest incarnation had the added strength of including structures like seawalls in the $17 million loan fund.

The bill strengthens dam safety by requiring that emergency action plans be written for high and significant hazard dams. It also raises the fines that the Department of Conservation and Recreation can collect from owners whose dams are in violation of dam safety regulations. Another provision allows towns to bond for dam removal projects.

Rhode Island has similar rules about emergency action plans for high hazard dams, but many towns are in violation of this regulation and the Department of Emergency Management has no authority to enforce this portion of the law. In 2011, the Rhode Island legislature did include dam removal as an activity that towns can bond for using the authority of the Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency.

Advocates in Rhode Island are interested in developing some type of funding mechanism for the repair and removal of dams, and Save The Bay has worked on legislation for the last two sessions that would require dam owners to inspect their own dams. This has been a rule for several years in Massachusetts. We will continue to make this a priority in the next legislative session.

New State Park in Dighton will be part of the Taunton River Trail

The Taunton River watershed has a new state park. Sweets Knoll State Park is a new 56 acre park located on the Taunton River in Dighton. It includes about two miles of old railroad bed that will be converted into a walking and bike path and connected to the Taunton River Trail system, which is still in development.

The state park was established in 2010 with the purchase of the land at 1387 Somerset Ave. The land was purchased by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation with the assistance of the Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Sheehan Family Fund. The landowner donated his former residence which will remain on the property. The park is open to the public and will soon have a public access site for launching small boats, and for fishing access to the Taunton River.

The acquisition of this state park has provided a major boost to the Taunton River Trail committee which has been developing a trail network from Raynham through Somerset and connecting with trails in Fall River and Rhode Island. The trail will one day connect with the East Bay Bike Path in Rhode Island and the planned Aquidneck Island Bike Path. See the Taunton River Trail website for more information about this exciting project.

Removal of Hopewell Mills Dam

This summer, the first of three dam removal projects on the Mill River in Taunton got underway. The Hopewell Mills dam, located next to the Taunton State Hospital was removed in August.

The project is still underway as contractors create a new river channel through the former impoundment. The removal of this dam will create a larger floodplain that can store water at high flows, protecting downtown Taunton from flooding. The removal of two dams upstream will also increase flood storage and allow fish to migrate up to Lake Sabbatia for the first time in 200 years. You can see more information and photos at millriver.blogspot.com

An Early Drought

It has been an early spring so far, and as leaves and buds come out, trees and plants will start sucking water out of the ground at a very fast pace. Generally, this is a time of abundant water (April showers bring May flowers!). This year, however, our streams are at record low levels. The United States Geological Survey has placed Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts in a severe drought category, before spring really even kicks off.

This spells danger for all the creatures who use this time of year to migrate to new habitats, mate and grow. Vernal pools have dried up, along with wood frog eggs that need these habitats to grow into tadpoles. As fish migrate back up into our rivers, the low flows make it challenging to find access to spawning areas. This is also an important time of year for humans to store water in our reservoirs for the upcoming summer.

The Pawtuxet River is at one third of its normal flow, and the Blackstone is at at one quarter of where it should be. To put this in perspective, the Pawtuxet River is at levels not seen since 1965, which is Rhode Island's drought of record.

April has just begun, and it may rain soon (we hope!), but we have a lot of ground to make up. Let us not forget that with climate change we fully expect extremes on both ends - floods (such as in 2010) and droughts as well.

Emerging Contaminants in Bay Waters

Narragansett Bay and its watershed are exposed to many contaminants from runoff, industry and waste water. New work being done by Victoria Sacks and her colleagues at URI is helping us to understand what are being called "emerging contaminants" - those things that are derived from human activity that cannot be removed in the waste water treatment process. These include endocrine disrupting compounds that are found in personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and industrial processes.

In a recent study, passive samplers were deployed around the Bay watershed by volunteers, and measured levels of triclosans (common in antibacterial soaps), alkylphenols (found in detergents), and PBDEs (flame retardants). While the amounts of these contaminants found were low, they were found throughout the Bay watershed.

Other contaminants of concern within our waters are things like caffeine, hormones, and other pharmaceutical chemicals that can disrupt endocrine functions in fish and amphibians and affect the health of millions of people. These drugs are showing up not only in surface waters, but also in the drinking water of major cities. This fact sheet from American Rivers provides interesting background on the subject.

Recently, Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduced the Pharmaceutical Stewardship Act (H.R. 2939) to establish a national pharmaceutical take back program. This program would be financed by manufacturers and would reduce the supply of unused and expired medications.

The Food and Drug Administration has a website that outlines safe ways to dispose of medication. Medication should not be flushed, and should either be taken to household hazardous waste collection or disposed of in the trash.

Pawtuxet Falls Dam Removal

This week we are celebrating the removal of the Pawtuxet Falls Dam in Pawtuxet Village. Neighbors and citizens have been coming out and enjoying the view, watching the hydraulic hammer at work. This project is very visible and while not everyone agrees with it, it has become a good educational tool to teach about river restoration. I am blogging about the project at our project blog, and you can see lots of photographs on the Save The Bay Facebook page.