March 29, 2024

City of East Providence Receives Funds to Help Open Historic Beach to Swimming

Attorney General’s office earmarks $850,000 from Volkswagen settlement funds for stormwater improvements to Sabin Point Park Beach

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East Providence, R.I. (December 14, 2018): Christmas has come early for the City of East Providence with the awarding today of $850,000 in grant funding from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.

The City of East Providence is one of 16 entities to share the largest amount of the total $4.1 million in funds from a settlement with Volkswagen for violating Rhode Island state law prohibiting the sale and leasing of diesel vehicles equipped with illegal and undisclosed emissions control software.

The settlement funds will support the City’s efforts to reopen Sabin Point Park to swimming. The salt water estuary beach, located in the Riverside area of the city and once a popular 19th century seasonal destination still densely populated with summer cottage-sized residential lots, has been closed for close to a century due to chronic water pollution in Narragansett Bay. The monies will pay for additional stormwater runoff remediation work to improve water quality necessary to make the beach swimmable again. When completed, this project would represent the first and only beach in the Upper Bay opened to swimming in generations.

“Volkswagen’s malfeasance is Rhode Island’s benefit,” said Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin. “It is through this settlement that we can have a real impact on the health and well-being of our citizens and support environmentally beneficial projects right here in Rhode Island. We chose grants based on the ability to most improve the quality of life for Rhode Island citizens, to further reduce harmful emissions from our environment, improve the health of our waterways, offset climate change hazards, and create environmentally-sound educational opportunities for students. I am especially excited about the Sabin Point Beach project, which will aid remediation efforts to finally reopen the Upper Bay beach to swimming after having been closed for decades and provide recreational opportunities for thousands who might not otherwise have access.”

In 2012, the City, in partnership with Save The Bay, began identifying areas and opportunities for stormwater filtration within the Sabin Point Park watershed area. Federal, state and local funding was received from New England Interstate Water Polution Control Commission, the Bay and Watershed Restoration Fund, and R.I. Department of Environmental Management state bonds. To date, these funds enabled the City to create a Master Plan for engineering and begin some infrastructure improvements, getting the project to the point of construction implementation now with the infusion of the VW grant money.

“The significant amount of VW funds awarded make a complete stormwater retrofit of Sabin Point Park a reality,” states Acting City Manager Christopher Parella. “Without these funds, project implementation would have been incremental and subject to intermittent grant funding typically requiring our City to match funds over an unknown length of time. We now have a real opportunity to return a swimmable beach to the citizens of East Providence in the not too distant future, which is an incredible and historic accomplishment. The City greatly appreciates the support of all who have collaborated with us on this end goal.”

The ultimate goal of the Sabin Point project is to install a sand-based filtration system that will reduce pollutants from stormwater runoff, which happens during both rain and snow weather events. With diligent monitoring and regular testing of water quality for proper levels of bacteria, the beach can be reopened in the future to swimming. Currently, the beach is used for boating and land recreation.

The bulk of the funds will be used to manage stormwater through a variety of techniques to infiltrate water into the soil versus the untreated stormwater discharging directly onto the beach. Key to this improvement is the removal of large pipes that collect water runoff from the neighborhoods within the watershed and discharge directly to the shore. The pipes are flat with little to no positive pitch, and the sand accumulation in the end of the pipes blocks the water from leaving the system. The result is stagnant sediment that gets forced out to the beach with heavy rain, discharging along with it high levels of bacteria, phosphates and nitrogen into the Bay. These pipes will be removed, replaced with perforated pipes for proper filtration and drainage, and stormwater will instead be captured and redirected by a combination of dry swales, sand filters and vegetated wet gravel. It’s a natural and environmentally “green” safe treatment system that has been successful in reducing pollutant levels in beaches such as at Colt State Park, the Town of Warren, and Chesapeake Bay.

Recently, the engineering consulting firm ESS Group, supervised by the City with technical assistance from Save The Bay, Brown University and the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, created a Stormwater Master Plan for Sabin Point. The R.I. Department of Health partnered on water sample monitoring to collect and analyze water samples as a pre-project baseline against which to assess progress. Brown University Professor David Murray has conducted water quality testing since 2016 to monitor nutrient and bacteria levels and will continue to monitor during the installation of the new stormwater capture system. Save The Bay has led the public outreach component of the project to invovle neighborhood organizations and community members, specifically the Riverside Renaissance Movement which is dedicated to revitalization of this area of East Providence.

Funds will be used by the City to pay for permitting, construction plans, engineering and construction of the Stormwater Master Plan improvements to maximize stormwater capture in seven locations throughout the 63-acre watershed area. “Originally this project was intended to benefit a future generation, but now with the VW funds shaving years off our timeline and eliminating the need to apply for more grants, this Sabin Point beach project can be something we will see within our generation, perhaps within 10 years,” states Diane M. Feather, AICP, acting planning director for the City.

Save The Bay will produce a fact sheet for area residents to highlight what they can do to help improve water quality of the watershed, including use of rain gardens, rain barrels, environmentally sound landscaping techniques, and picking up pet waste. "We commend the City for taking a leadership role in restoring the water quality of Sabin Point by proactively treating polluted runoff from developed areas that drain to Sabin Point beach," states Save The Bay Director of Habitat Restoration Wenley Ferguson, who provides ongoing technical assistance to the City's project engineers. "The City's vision to help restore this important Upper Bay beach to swimming would be a victory for all Rhode Islanders who have supported decades of investment in the cleanup of Narragansett Bay. Funding to further reduce bacteria and nutrient pollution from the watershed will help make this vision a reality.”

Since 2012, the City of East Providence Planning Department has led the Sabin Point Comprehensive Stormwater Improvement Plan project with the goal to improve water quality within the 63-acre watershed in the Riverside section of the City and return Sabin Point beach to swimming in the future. For more information, contact Acting Planning Director Diane M. Feather, AICP, East Providence City Hall, 145 Taunton Avenue, East Providence RI 02914; Tel: 401-435-7531 x 11154; Email: DFeather@cityofeastprov.com.

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