This Old House episodes featuring CRMC to air

BARRINGTON, February 1, 2012 –The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), and its executive director, will be featured on episodes of This Old House airing beginning February 19, 2012.

This Old House filmed an extensive renovation project at a Barrington Beach home – owned by Geoffrey Allen and Michelle Forcier – during which CRMC Executive Director Grover Fugate spoke on-camera about a variety of coastal issues, including the CRMC’s presence statewide and its actual jurisdiction over the Barrington property. The segment will be part of the third of 10 episodes based on the project, according to producers, and the first episode aired on PBS on February 19. (People should check their local listings for air dates.)

Fugate spoke with Kevin O’Connor, the show’s host, about CRMC regulatory topics such as coastal hazards and shoreline resiliency, best practices that coastal homeowners should consider to better protect their homes from storms, erosion and sea level rise, and non-point and point-source pollution into coastal waters. Fugate and the television crew visited the site in Barrington, as well as a few other sites in Rhode Island, to get first-hand experience with coastal processes.

“As producers, part of our job is to investigate all aspects of a project to see what might make for interesting show content,” said Jennifer Wells, one of the show’s producers. “A theme throughout the Barrington series has been building in a hurricane zone as well as along the coast and what that means in terms of building codes, methods and materials. Talking to the head of the CRMC was an obvious choice because of the regulatory work they’ve done with regard to building along the entire Rhode Island coast to protect both the coastline and the structures along it.”