Warwick has 39 miles of shoreline. That’s more than Jamestown, Narragansett and Bristol. In fact, it’s more than any other Rhode Island municipality. It shouldn’t be surprising then that more boats are moored or docked in Warwick than in any other community including Newport, which is often thought of as the sailing and boating Mecca of the state if not the region.  Warwick has many waterfront parks and beaches from Goddard Park to Rocky Point, City Park and Oakland Beach to name a few.  And with so much shoreline, it stands to reason, many Warwick homes are on the water.

One would think being so closely connected to Narragansett Bay, the Providence River (that’s water north of Conimicut Point) and Greenwich Bay that residents would not only have a respect for the water but also be educated in what it means to the city.

George Shuster Jr. made those observations Aug. 22 in addressing the Warwick Rotary Club.

Warwick native and Riverview resident — his home overlooks Mill Cove — Shuster has promoted educating 4th graders in the role the Bay plays to the environment and our way of life. Recruiting future stewards of Narragansett Bay is one of his goals as the recently elected president of Save the Bay.

A former commodore of the Edgewood Yacht Club, Shuster is an avid sailor and directly involved in running youth regattas and promoting sailing camps. He is also a swimmer and declares the open waters that once carried raw sewage north of Conimicut ideal for long open water swims. Today, he said, the water is clear with visibility of 8 feet and more.

Introduction to the Bay

The effort to introduce youngsters to the Bay and what it means to our environment started in 2008 when a grant from the Defenders of Greenwich Bay funded a Bay outing run by Save the Bay for Robertson School fourth graders. The outing was preceded by a classroom discussion of what the students would be seeing and what to expect when they were on the water.  The program was expanded to other schools and has now become part of the fourth grade curriculum in all Warwick elementary schools, Shuster said.

But Save the Bay’s educational outreach isn’t limited to Warwick. Since he joined the board 15 years ago, Shuster said Save the Bay has grown to 40 employees and that its programs reach “tens of thousands of students.”  Nor are the goals of the organizations limited to spotlighting the attributes of Narragansett Bay. It advocates for legislation and programs to enhance and protect the Bay as well as to make it accessible to the public.

Raw sewage unacceptable

“It’s unacceptable for any raw sewage in the Bay,” Shuster said after explaining how containment tunnels bored from the rock under Providence and Pawtucket have enabled the Narragansett Bay Commission to store millions of gallons of storm water runoff and sewage during heavy downpours until it can be treated and released as effluent into the Seekonk and Providence Rivers. Shuster also talked about the Bay “food chain” and the role phytoplankton plays as the first step in that ladder as a source of food for fish, clams and other creatures.

Shuster brought up how some shellfishermen blame the decline in quahog harvests on the “Bay being too clean” and advocate revisions in the release of nitrogen from wastewater treatment plants as a food source for phytoplankton. In March of this year a special legislative commission chaired by state Rep. Joseph Solomon of Warwick released its report on the reduced catch of quahogs in the Bay, concluding to leave the current regulations in effect, with possible revision open to consideration. Shuster is opposed to revising the regulations on the release of nitrogen into the Bay.

As for public access to the Bay, Shuster doesn’t see it as a “huge problem” in Warwick as there are so many rights of way to the shoreline.

Protecting and restoring

Another role of Save the Bay, he said, is to lend its expertise to projects aimed at protecting and restoring the shoreline from rising sea level and storms.  Focusing on Warwick, he cited the beach restoration project in Oakland Beach on Seaview Drive facing Brushneck Cove, he noted how Save the Bay coordinated volunteers in planting beach grasses to retain sand dunes. Habitat restoration is also high on the STB list.

While the Blackstone and Pawtuxet Rivers are the greatest sources of Rhode Island waters entering the Bay, Shuster said 60% of the Bay watershed is in Massachusetts. As Narragansett Bay is primarily considered a Rhode Island resource, he said it makes it challenging to rally legislators and support in Massachusetts.

Shuster also spoke of the relocation of Save the Bay’s Newport aquarium from Easton’s Beach where it was subject to storms to the hub of the Newport’s bus and information center.  The aquarium has been more than doubled in size and as of June when it opened has had 40,000 visitors. The Easton’s Beach location had about 20,000 visitors a year. He said the aquarium is projected to generate $1 million to $1.5 million annually and become a major source of STB revenues.

In a follow up email to his talk, Shuster wrote, “The biggest challenge we face is continuing to improve Bay health and access in the face of shoreline development, sea level rise and storm effects. Even today, we still see raw sewage releases and rain outfall events that compromise water quality and make the Bay unfishable and unswimmable, and both development of the shore and climate change place additional pressure on these issues.”