The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program was established in 1987. It was one of the first designations of the National Estuary Program that was created by Congress to address concerns for the health of the nation’s estuaries.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency convened a Management Conference of federal, state, local and non-governmental parties. The conference developed a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan, which established conservation goals.
The program carries out education, restoration, advocacy and capacity-building activities to support the conservation goals. It has synthesized disparate sources of environmental data, providing decision-makers with valuable and necessary information. It helps maintain an ecosystem level focus on problems affecting the bay.
The program faces challenges from its institutional arrangement, funding limitations, and recent conflicts with state-level management plans.
Mission
The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program has established a mission statement that is focused on protecting and preserving the bay and its watershed through partnerships that conserve and restore natural resources, enhance water quality and promote community involvement.
Objectives
The following objectives have been established:
Lead Organization
Key Parties
Federal
State
NGO
Management Committee
The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program is overseen by a Management Committee composed of representatives of Rhode Island and Massachusetts environmental and resource management agencies, local environmental groups, and other stakeholders. The committee guides implementation of the Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan and establishes annual program priorities.
Policy Committee
Additionally, the NBEP is in the process of forming a Policy Committee, which would set broad direction for the program, and attempt to resolve differences between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. This committee would be composed of the heads of state agencies from the two states.
Concerned for the failing health of the nation’s estuaries, Congress identified Narragansett Bay as one of four large estuaries to be studied in a pilot program established in 1985. The Narragansett Bay Project was established as a joint effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
Narragansett Bay was designated as a participant in the National Estuary Program following the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act. The program transitioned from research to focus on addressing management issues.
The Ecosystem
Narragansett Bay is a temperate, well-mixed estuary, enclosed by land to the east, north and west. It opens onto Rhode Island Sound and Block Island to the south. The estuary stretches across 192 square miles, mostly in Rhode Island. A small portion of the estuary is in Massachusetts.
The bay is shallow, and includes 156 miles of shoreline, including offshore islands. It includes many habitat types, such as open water, salt marshes, subtidal bottom habitat and brackish waters. Estuaries are areas of high biological productivity and abundant wildlife, including birds, fish, crabs, lobsters, marine mammals, clams, and reptiles.
Threats
Human impacts to the ecosystem are widespread and have grown in severity since early Colonial times. Fishing and the effects of industrialization diminished the stocks of pelagic and anadromous fish by the mid 1880s. Fisheries have shifted to the coastal waters. Today, shellfish remains the most important commercial fishery in the bay.
About 13 million tons of cargo is imported into the bay each year. Shipping has led to modification of the shoreline, dredging and invasive species.
Pollution has contaminated sediments and mud found in the bay, although many sources of pollutants have been eliminated. Industries had been a source of toxic chemicals and metals. Wastewater had been poorly treated or untreated before entering the bay. Today, nutrient-rich stormwater and run-off are the greatest sources of pollution in the bay.
The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program uses the following strategies to advance its conservation goals:
Currents of Change
The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program developed a systematic monitoring network that combines all relevant environmental indicator data into a comprehensive framework to evaluate and track environmental trends throughout the Narragansett Bay region, and to communicate the trends to decision-makers and community members.
Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program has realized the following accomplishments and impacts:
The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program has been facilitated by the following factors:
The Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program has encountered the following challenges to realizing its conservation goals:
The experience of the Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program offers lessons for other projects, including:
Narragansett Bay National Estuary Program: http://www.nbep.org/index.html