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In an interview, Jan H. Reitsma discusses a new fishing license program, an environmental cleanup at Quonset, Rhode Island, the economy, farms, and the role of the Department of Environmental Management.

A campaign to clean Brayton Point among recipients In it's second of three grant-making sessions for 2001, The Rhode Island Foundation Board of Directors approved 28 economic and community-development grants [...]

AS Rhode Island's real estate market has surged in recent years, so too have efforts to protect its pristine undeveloped land. By many accounts, interest in open space preservation is [...]

PROVIDENCE -- Rep. Suzanne M. Henseler, D-North Kingstown, has submitted legislation that would regulate ballast water discharged by large vessels entering Narragansett Bay, based on federal guidelines. Rep. Henseler's bill [...]

Saying the state is 'out of options,' state Rep. Peter Palumbo, D-Cranston, has asked the attorney general to sue the owners of the Brayton Point Power Plant for allegedly polluting [...]

After more than two decades of indecision, Rhode Island officials are ready to deal with the issue of dredging -- and they are doing it as a united front. Representatives [...]

BOSTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that Rhode Island reduced its toxic waste emissions by 40 percent between 1998 and 1999. The agency attributed the reduction principally to [...]

Environmentalists are watching the state's General Assembly as issues from dredging to neighborhood development, and lead poisoning are debated on the Senate and House floors. And while groups like Save [...]

Alter more than three decades of protecting what's long been considered Rhode Island's greatest natural resources, Save The Bay officials believe their greatest challenges may still lie ahead. That was [...]

The lead wars are set to resume for the second time in the next General Assembly. An attempt earlier this year to overhaul the 1991 state lead poison control law [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate has approved $4.27 million for various Rhode Island water-related projects including repair of the Providence Hurricane Barrier, $1.9 million; and completion of the Providence Harbor [...]

Gov. Lincoln Almond has announced PROVIDENCE -- The distribution $668,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to eight Rhode Island cities and towns. The grants will be for such projects as [...]

It has been a year since the state Department of Environmental Management has allowed designers of individual septic disposal systems (ISDS) to do their own, inspections. As part of DEM [...]

November 7 could be close to a $100 million dollar day for Rhode Island's environment. The first two of six bond issues on the statewide referenda will ask Rhode Islanders [...]

Rhode Island ranks on a par with most states in its efforts to clean up the state's worst environmental problems -- its 13 Superfund sites, according to an official of [...]

Save The Bay's environmental campus Resurrecting a former shipyard with a birds-eye view, down Narragansett Bay, to become the future home of Save The Bay's 'Explore the Bay Center' seems [...]

(Adaptedfrom his speech to the Bay Summit 2000 in April at the Rhode Island Convention Center.) ...Narragansett Bay has often been called the crown jewel of Rhode Island's natural environment [...]

Often we talk about the need for long-range economic planning in Rhode Island. Just as important is an overall environmental plan, one which members of the Conservation Law Foundation suggest [...]

The first week of Rhode Island's new emissions testing program went more or less as expected despite some glitches and moves by legislators to rein in the cost of the [...]

WARWICK -- The state Emissions and Safety Inspection Program has announced that it expects to be ready Jan. 3, 2000 to begin testing auto emissions around the state. Installation of [...]

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Lincoln Almond announced the augmented award of $433,000 matching federal funds to public and private nonprofit groups for 11 recreational trail projects throughout the state. The projects [...]

HAVERHILL - Multigrains Specialty Bakery, based here, has received a $200,000 loan from the state's 'Brownfields' Redevelopment Fund, which it will use to obtain a $1.4 million loan from BankBoston [...]

PROVIDENCE -- In a cooperative effort among the Audubon Society of Rhode. Island, The Nature Conservancy, and the state, 100.74 acres of land in Exeter and West Greenwich have been [...]

University of Rhode Island (URI) scientists have been given a $745,000 grant from a team of federal agencies to help develop procedures for any offshore renewable projects to be sited in federal waters. The projects include but are not limited to wind farms. Insights on URI's research on Rhode Island's coastal waters are also given.

The Rhode Island (R.I.) Coastal Resources Management Council (CMRC) could soon rule whether to grant the expansion requested by Champlin's Marina or some variation of it. The R.I. Supreme Court has ordered the CMRC to take another look after its original request was rejected. Insights on the opposition to the projects are also given.

The ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) by the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council is nearing completion and will provide the groundwork for permitting development off the coastlines. However, environmental groups complain that the state is speeding up the work to meet arbitrary deadlines. Insights on the planned wind farms are also given.

Governor Donald L. Carcieri has proposed to merge Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) and the Water Resources Board into Department of Environmental Protection (DEM). The proposed merger aims to lower state pending and would cut 29 positions in the agencies. CRMC's cease-and-desist order on DEM is also discussed.

The efforts of the legislature of Rhode Island, to pass the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2007 that sets timelines for the reduction of diesel emissions from motor vehicles, are described.

The movement to revitalize the state's brownfields program appears to be once again gaining momentum. One of the premiere programs in the country when it was first created in 1995, [...]

Voter approval of referendum Question 8 in the election year of 2004 would allow $70 million for open space, recreation, bay and water-shed protection bonds, an amount that proponents call conservative. Every dollar allocated to these initiatives has the potential to be matched $2 to $3 from other sources.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recommended a site in Rhode Island South for disposing of sediments dredged from harbors and navigation channels in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. The EPA will issue a final Environmental Impact Statement after reviewing, considering and responding to public comments.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate has approved $2 million for the Explore the Bay Education Center in Providence being developed by Save the Bay in Rhode Island for the area [...]

The Ciba-Geigy chemical plant in Cranston, RI has been closely monitored for pollution levels by government and local groups since the company stopped making chemicals in mid-1986 in preparation for closing the plant. The company has generally been praised for its efforts to cooperate with local residents, but traces of toxic substances have been found in local produce, leading to suspicions that the company is leaving toxic wastes behind. Also, Ciba-Geigy's reluctance to tie into a new sewer system, preferring to continue dumping into the Pawtuxet River, created bitterness towards the company. The company has gotten high marks for its efforts to retrain and place workers displaced by the closing of the plant.