DEM confirms plans for new stormwater permit to reduce pollution around Mashapaug watershed

State environment officials are planning to create and issue a new permit setting stormwater management requirements for industrial and commercial property owners surrounding Providence’s Mashapaug watershed.

The April 29 letter from Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Director Terry Gray confirms the verbal commitment given at a Feb. 1 press conference to announce measures to reduce pollution in the urban watershed.

Many of the property owners surrounding the ponds along the Providence and Cranston border have not had to follow state stormwater regulations because their existence pre-dates the onset of 1993 state stormwater permits. Meanwhile, toxic algae blooms have overrun the Mashapaug, Spectacle and Tongue ponds, preventing South Providence residents from fishing or otherwise enjoying the bodies of freshwater, according to a Jan. 31 petition from the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General.

The petition calls on DEM to invoke the little-known Residual Designation Authority provision under the federal 1972 Clean Water Act to force industrial and commercial property owners to clean up their act. Gray’s April 29 letter comes one day before the April 30 deadline to respond to the attorney general’s petition.

Plans for a new stormwater permit for properties surrounding the Mashapaug watershed will rely on an “adaptive management-based approach” with phased-in requirements, giving the roughly 70 affected property owners one year from permit issuance to develop stormwater management plans for their properties. This includes identifying ways to reduce impervious surfaces and add green infrastructure. 

By year two, property owners will also have to commit to regularly rake leaves, sweep parking lots and clear out drainage systems and catch basins on their land, according to the letter.

Draft guidelines for the new permit are expected to be unveiled by late summer, with a final permit issued by the end of the calendar year, according to DEM’s letter. The agency is also “actively exploring a contractual relationship, including funding, with an independent party” to help businesses comply with the new regulations, the letter stated.

Darrèll Brown, vice president for Conservation Law Foundation Rhode Island, called the news a “major win” for residents in a statement on Monday.

 “For the first time in decades these water bodies will have a chance to recover, and once again be safe places for boating, swimming, and fishing,” Brown said. We hope that one day, instead of being a toxic hazard, Mashapaug Pond will become a great community asset.” 

The Boston advocacy group issued a similar petition to DEM in 2018 urging stricter state stormwater regulation for area property owners. Its calls to reverse pollution went unanswered because of state staffing shortages, the pandemic and uncertainty about how to wield the obscure clause within federal clean water laws, Gray said previously.

Helping make the foundation’s case for at last taking action: A landmark 2022 Environmental Protection Agency decision to address pollution in Massachusetts’ Charles, Neponset and Mystic rivers.

Affected property owners have not been notified as of Tuesday, Evan LaCross, a DEM spokesman, said in an email. The state agency is working with city officials in Cranston and Providence to develop an outreach program, with plans to notify the new permittees of “over the coming months,” LaCross said.

Updated to include a response from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management,