Project Clean Sweep
 Clean The Bay will use their specially equipped 58-foot mechanized landing craft with an on-board crane for debris removal. |
Clean The Bay, Inc., of North Kingstown, is a nonprofit organization established for the cleanup work by Capt. Alan Wentworth of Seatow Rhode Island and Capt. Ed Hughes of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. The CRMC, in support of Clean The Bay’s efforts, granted an assent in November 2005 for debris removal in Narragansett Bay, and sent letters of support. The Department of Environmental Management and Julianna Wyman, formerly of US Fish & Wildlife Service, worked with Clean The Bay and drafted the grant proposal for federal funding, which the non-profit received. CRMC Policy Analyst Megan Higgins also contributed information to incorporate Greenwich Bay SAMP information. As a result of this $150,000 NOAA grant, the largest ever given to any state, Clean The Bay was able to proceed with its marine debris removal effort, called Project Clean Sweep.
Project Clean Sweep - a cleanup up marine debris that have washed ashore and littered shoreline areas around the Bay for decades - will focus on approximately 100 miles of shoreline in four areas: Greenwich Bay, Metro Bay and the Bay Islands and West Aquidneck Island. The cleanup areas include Warwick Cove, Apponoag Cove and East Greenwich Cove in Greenwich Bay; East Providence, Gaspee-Fields Point and Nayatt-Bullock Point in Metro Bay; and Prudence, Patience, Dyer, Gould, Hope and Dutch Islands, the western Portsmouth shore and the northern portion of Jamestown. It is estimated that more than 530 tons of marine debris clutter the shores in the target area of these three regions. Clean The Bay will use their specially equipped 58-foot mechanized landing craft with an on-board crane for the debris removal.
The funding granted by NOAA is largely due to the high quality initial marine debris inventory completed for the grant application, and also because marine debris issues were identified in the CRMC’s Greenwich Bay Special Area Management Plan (in Section 860). This was also a key step in developing the CRMC Metro Bay SAMP process.
On November 2, 2005, the CRMC issued an assent for the debris removal program to continue. According to the assent, all work being permitted must be completed on or before November 2, 2008. Stipulations included in the assent call for Clean The Bay to meet with CRMC staff if they encounter difficult removal operations, in order to discuss options with the least impact on coastal resources; no alterations, no stockpiling of materials or disposal of materials and no operation of heavy machinery in an area of beach grass or coastal wetland vegetation; and no discharge or disposal of hazardous wastes or hazardous materials associated with construction machinery on-site on in the waterway.
Voice 401-783-3370 • Fax 401-783-3767 • E-Mail cstaff1@crmc.ri.gov
