hypoxia – RI Future

July 28, 2014July 29, 2014

Watershed Counts report: Or why rain is bad for the beach

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at beach — Click on the image to read the full 2014 Watershed Counts report

Governor’s Bay Day, when all Rhode Island state beaches celebrate the Ocean State by offering free admission and parking, was washed out by a driving rain yesterday. This is bad news for Rhode Island even if you didn’t miss a free beach day yesterday.

“Our beaches will be the bellwether of climate change,” said Judith Swift, executive director of URI’s Coastal Institute. “Not only will we lose beaches due to sea level rise, but increased precipitation will add additional pollutants to our beaches from stormwater runoff.”

Swift was speaking about the new 2014 Watershed Counts report, released today (you can read the full report here). But weather like yesterday’s is one of the reasons we should pay close attention to the report’s findings.

“Beach closures,” according to the press release, “are very much dependent upon rainfall, as stormwater flushes out pollutants and bacteria that close both beaches and shellfishing areas.”

The report explains: “Annual average precipitation … has been increasing over the last century and this trend is projected to continue. When you look at the pattern of rainfall, something else becomes apparent: the frequency of intense rainfall events has also increased. When we get large amounts of precipitation in a short amount of time, the stormwater runoff can overwhelm our treatment facilities and result in sewage being flushed into the Narragansett Bay.”

And shows it in a cartoon, as well:

There were 41 beach closures last summer. This summer there are currently five closures – at First Beach in Middletown, the Bristol and Warren town beaches and two beaches in Tiverton. This rain event will surely lead to even more this week. (RI Future reported on the scientific causes of beach closures, their economic effects and how RI monitors the water last summer).

But the good news is while we had heavy rains last summer, we experienced fewer beach closings than previous summers. There were 86 beach closures in 2009, 55 in 2010 and 45 in 2011. The Watershed Counts report says the counter-intuitive decrease in closures can be attributed because of public investments to control stormwater runoff, sewer overflow.

“Using green infrastructure and other best management practices to protect beach water quality is paying off,” said Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit. “DEM welcomes the opportunity to partner with cities and towns to enhance what is a time-honored Rhode Island tradition – enjoying a glorious day at the beach.”

A clean water/open space bond on the November ballot, if approved by voters, would invest $20 million to further clean water and segregate sewage and stormwater overflow, according to the report, but that’s only a fraction of the need. “Municipalities and the Narragansett Bay Commission have identified more than $1.8 billion dollars of needed clean water in frastructure improvements ranging from wastewater treatment upgrades and storm water quality improvements to combined sewer overflow abatement projects,” according to DEM in the report.

“The opportunity to promote and invest in a beautiful Rhode Island is significant, and the need for that investment is immediate,” according to a DEM statement in the report. “Rhode Island’s greatest natural resource and a key driver to economic growth—Narragansett Bay—is threatened by polluted run-off and the damaging effects of climate change. Conversely, local food markets are booming, horticultural, and agricultural and landscape companies are doing more local business than ever, and our $2.26 billion dollar tourism sector is growing.”

According to the press release, there has been a “surprising” lack of support from the state to monitor water quality at local beaches.

“The funding for marine beach monitoring comes mostly from federal sources. The National Beach Program provided over $200,000 to both Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 2013,” it reads. “The state budgets contained no funding, despite the fact that beaches are an economic driver, and that the federal monitoring program for saltwater beaches has recently been at issue for possible elimination in federal budget talks.”

August 2, 2013April 24, 2014

Looking for oxygen in Narragansett Bay

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Rampant beach closures are bad for business but Rhode Islanders should be equally concerned with the potential for another fish kill this summer, said Save The Bay Baykeeper Tom Kutcher as he and a team from Brown University took water samples from around the upper Bay to monitor the oxygen levels in the water.

The group calls themselves the Insomniacs, because they used to do their research at night, and their work is critical if the Ocean State is to know when the oxygen levels in Narragansett Bay get low enough to leave millions of fish dead, as happened in 2003 in Greenwich Bay.

“All it will take is a school of blues to chase a school of pogies into a low oxygen zone and trap them there for a few hours and we could see another fish kill,” Kutcher said. “The conditions are as bad as they were but we aren’t seeing that big signal that gets everyone’s attention. Why should we wait for the fish to die? Let’s take action.”

DEM and URI officials told me the same thing last week.

Beach closures and hypoxia, the scientific term for low oxygen events, are part and parcel of the same environmental problems. They are both fueled by heavy rains, hot weather and stagnant water mixed with high levels of sewage and suburban runoff. Beaches close because of bacteria levels in The Bay are harmful to humans, but some of that same pollution, namely lawn fertilizers and pet poop, also causes rampant underwater plant growth. When those floating plants die, they sink to the bottom and starve Narragansett Bay of oxygen. When Narragansett Bay doesn’t have sufficient oxygen – as has been the case this summer – fish die.

David Murray, an environmental science professor from Brown University who leads the Insomniac team, helped design a meticulous monitoring system in order to stave off a disaster like Greenwich Bay experienced in 2003 when more than a million fish died because of low oxygen levels in The Bay.

His group tests 25 different spots on the upper Narragansett Bay – from the Seekonk River to Conimicut Point in Warwick. At each spot they slowly lower a $20,000 piece of equipment from the surface to the bottom. The monitoring machine is attached to a laptop, and it instantly communicates the oxygen levels in the water.

Another group, the Day Trippers, similarly monitors the East Bay. URI and state researchers use semi-permanent buoys to take similar readings in the West Bay and lower Bay. Everyone’s research says the same thing: increasingly hypoxic waters pose a major threat to sea life in Narragansett Bay ecosystem, and by extension the Ocean State economy.

July 30, 2013July 31, 2013

Warwick hit particularly hard by beach closures

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Oakland Beach is a bustling, if out-of-the-way, summertime economic engine on Greenwich Bay in Warwick. There’s a popular clam shack, some sit down places, a few mini-marts and even a Harley Davidson dealer … all of which are in business to make money off those spending a summer day at the beach.

Meanwhile, the beach here has been closed to swimming for almost all of July and 24 days in total since mid-June.

Oakland Beach is the poster child for why beach closures matter to the Ocean State. This community’s economy, like so many in Rhode Island, ebbs and flows with the strength or weakness of summer. But Oakland Beach’s proximity to suburbia and its calm, warm waters have become it’s biggest detriments. These conditions are a perfect storm for a beach too polluted to swim at.

The issue is widespread in Warwick, where local beaches have been closed or almost 50 days in total this summer. From 2000 to 2012, according to health department data, Conimicut Point in Warwick has been closed more than any other beach in the state, with 230 days. Oakland Beach is second with 190 closed days. City Park in Warwick had its beach closed 119 times since 2000 and Goddard Park has been closed 110 times. There are only two other beaches in the state that have been closed more than 100 days during that time.

This is why Save The Bay has invited state legislators and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian here for a press event.

July 29, 2013July 29, 2013

Reps, Save The Bay sound alarm over beach closures

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State legislators from around the West Bay and Save The Bay are holding an event Wednesday to bring attention to the high number of beach closures this year and the potential of another devastating fish kill in Upper Narragansett Bay and Greenwich Bay this summer.

“Beach closures are running at a record-breaking pace this summer. Growing dead zones are setting up the Bay for a low-oxygen event as severe and widespread as the Greenwich Bay fishkill that occurred 10 years ago,” according to a press release from Save The Bay. ”

Tom Kutcher and Jonathan Stone of Save The Bay will be joined by progressive state Reps. Teresa Tanzi, of Narragansett, Frank Ferri, of Warwick and Art Handy of Cranston at Oakland Beach on Greenwich Bay in Warwick, not far from where similarly hypoxic conditions in 2003 killed more than million fish.

Hypoxia is the scientific term for low oxygen levels in water. In Narragansett Bay, it is caused when lawn fertilizer pet waste and other non-point sources of nitrogen leach into The Bay and cause rapid plant growth that starves fish and other sea creatures of oxygen.

“Rhode Island depends on Narragansett Bay for recreation and commerce,” said the release. “An unhealthy Bay limits economic and recreational opportunities.”

RI Future early last week that beach closures “have been alarmingly high this year.” We also reported last week that DEM officials were concerned about the potential for another fish kill, like the one that happened in 2003.

July 26, 2013January 18, 2016

Conditions ripe for another Narragansett Bay fish kill

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Upper Narragansett Bay and Greenwich Bay are on high alert because of low oxygen levels in the water that could result in a fish kill, according to state water quality officials and other environmental experts.

“We’re seeing some significant hypoxic events,” said Sue Kiernan, the deputy chief of the DEM’s water quality division. As for the potential for a second devastating fish kill, Kiernan added, “We’re definitely tracking conditions very closely because of our concerns for that.”

Hypoxia is the scientific term for low oxygen levels. Lawn fertilizer, pet waste and other suburban sources of nitrogen run-off cause abnormal plant growth in Narragansett Bay,which in turn starves fish and other marine life of the oxygen they need to survive. In 2003, hypoxia caused a massive fish kill in Greenwich Bay that killed more than a million of fish countless other sea life.

“Over the past several weeks we’ve been seeing widespread low oxygen events from the Seekonk and Providence rivers to the Quonset area,” said Heather Stoffel, who monitors these areas for the state through the URI graduate school of Oceanography.

While fish haven’t started dying yet, as happened in 2003, Save The Bay Baykeeper Tom Kutcher told me many dead crabs are being found around Prudence Island. Commercial fisherman from Greenwich Bay have told me they too have seen many dead blue crabs this summer. In fact, dead blue crabs are visible in the shallows of Greenwich Cove.

While state officials were reluctant to compare this year to 2003, saying they don’t have a full season’ worth of data yet, Kutcher, a coastal ecologist, said he has analyzed the data to date and the conditions “seem worse or at least equal” to 2003.

In 2003, the Ocean State made international news when a mass death of menhaden, a small bait fish, occurred in Greenwich Bay. This year, the conditions are similar to 2003 in the East Bay and upper Bay.

“The Bay is speaking to us,” Kutcher said. “Someone needs to ring an alarm bell.”

The East Greenwich sewer treatment plant on Greenwich Cove.

July 25, 2013July 31, 2013

Narragansett Bay is in dire straits this summer

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“Right now we are in the midst of a low-oxygen event more severe and widespread than the one that spawned the famous 2003 fish kill in Greenwich Bay,” reported Save The Bay Baykeeper Tom Kutcher in the Providence Journal yesterday. “No dead fish yet, but we’ve been seeing dead blue crabs around Prudence Island.”

I’ve been seeing dead blue crabs here in my neck of Narragansett Bay, too. Picture to follow. But dangerously high levels of pollutants in Naragansett Bay is a state-wide crisis.

Beach closures, as RI Future previously reported, have been alarmingly high this year. They’ve happened as far south as Narragansett Town Beach and three East Bay beaches were closed yesterday.

“Obviously this is an indication that something is not right with our water,” said Dara Chadwick, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, the state agency that monitors water quality for human safety. DoH maintains an interactive map of beach closures. It also has an overview page for beach health concerns.

When it rains all the toxic chemicals we put on our lawns, on our roads and into our old septic systems drain into the Bay. This causes plants to overproduce and fish to die. When fish die, two of the Ocean State’s most important economic sectors are severely hampered: commercial fishing and tourism/recreation.

Here’s how Kutcher put it in his ProJo piece:

In areas surrounding the Bay, we have innumerable streets, driveways and parking lots. During all weather, these surfaces collect pet waste, fluids dripping from our cars and chemicals running off our lawns. During a rainstorm, this all runs directly into the water at your local beach; that is, unless your town has adopted a storm-water-management strategy, such as tearing up pavement and replacing it with soil and plants that clean the water before percolating toward the Bay. But this probably isn’t the case.

Earlier this week I reached out to Meg Kerr, a local environmental scientist and president of the Environmental Council of Rhode Island, about this very same issue. She is organizing a conference call with other experts to speak to the issues.

Save The Bay has successfully saved The Bay from the detrimental effects of industrialization, but now Save The Bay needs to save The Bay from the equally detrimental effects of suburban sprawl.