The Biggest PVD River Cleanup in 30 Years

With funding from green bonds approved by Rhode Island voters, the Coastal Resources Management Council and TNC removed many tons of muck and plastic garbage from the bottom of the Providence River. The material will be beneficially reused to help build a new marine terminal to support the offshore wind industry. CRMC's Dan Goulet provides an introduction to the project, which was completed in January 2023.

[@annepatterson7017]

Amazing. Thank you for doing this vital work.

[@tncrhodeisland]

Definitely will be a boost to the urban ecosystem!

[@RistrayGR]

Thank you for doing such wonderful work that most people might not even notice. I'm curious though, will this mean the main loop for where Waterfire takes place won't show as much soil when the water goes down? The boats were having a big issue at certain times of day when that happened.

[@tncrhodeisland]

Yikes, just seeing this comment now! But yes, the idea was to reduce the exposed mudflats and make more of the river navigable, more of the time. It was funded by green bonds approved in 2018 and 2021.

[@sandals42159]

That is amazing. On another topic, have they found any human remains?

[@tncrhodeisland]

Ha! We get asked that a lot, but no bodies. Candidly, the remains would have gone through but the clothes would have gotten stuck on the dredge.

[@sandals42159]

@@tncrhodeisland So the bones may be in the detritus?

[@tncrhodeisland]

@@sandals42159 Theoretically possible, but unlikely given how shallow the water was in this area. If there were any remains, they likely would have been exposed at low tide at some point.

[@sandals42159]

@@tncrhodeisland Good to know! We still haven't found Jimmy Hoffa!

[@cpistocco]

It is a nice idea. But what is the point of moving all of that trash from one coastal are to another coastal area? It should have gone to the landfill.

[@tncrhodeisland]

Understandable, but trucking that amount of material would be been tremendously expensive and honestly, a waste of valuable landfill space. Larger items, like scooters and traffic cones, plus any plastic debris removed from the dredge, were put in a few dumpsters and sent to the landfill. The rest will be mixed with cement to form solid material that is strong enough to help raise the elevation of the South Quay terminal in East Providence. Future videos will touch on this in more detail. Thanks for asking.

[@sandals42159]

The material will be used in constructing a new marine terminal.