Smart Development For A Cleaner Bay

What's New

Environment Rhode Island is working to protect the bay from polluted runoff.  In 2007 we helped pass the Smart Development For A Cleaner Bay Act, S-808 (Moura) /H-6143 (Sullivan), which creates stricter standards for runoff pollution from  new development. 

Under the new law developers of new projects will have to capture stormwater runoff on the site, allowing groundwater to recharge and pollutants to filter out before the water hits our streams, rivers and Narragansett Bay.

Brief Summary

Stormwater runoff has a significant impact on water quality in the bay and its source waters.

Stormwater runoff carries nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus into our streams, rivers and the bay. This nutrient pollution feeds algal blooms that can deplete oxygen in the water and trigger the formation of underwater dead zones .

To solve our problems with stormwater runoff, developers and builders must rethink traditional approaches to development and the environmental problems it can cause.

New stormwater management principles are needed that focus on preventing, minimizing, and mitigating runoff by using low-impact design techniques and requiring pre-development groundwater recharge to be maintained. 

Low-impact design includes reduction of impervious cover, maintenance of natural vegetation, and minimizing land disturbance. Low-impact design techniques can significantly reduce and even prevent the negative effects of development on stormwater runoff.