Shared on behalf of the RI Department of Environmental Management

News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771   www.dem.ri.gov

For Release: February 25, 2015
Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402

DEM ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY CLOSURE OF MOUNT HOPE BAY AND KICKEMUIT RIVER TO SHELLFISHING BEGINNING THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 DUE TO FAILURE OF DISINFECTION SYSTEM AT FALL RIVER PLANT

PROVIDENCE – The Department of Environmental Management announces that conditionally-approved areas of Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River will be closed to shellfishing beginning at sunrise on Thursday, February 26.  DEM enacted the emergency closure because an estimated 600,000 gallons of non-disinfected effluent was discharged todayfrom the Fall River Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility between 8:50 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. Officials from the Massachusetts facility notified DEM’s Office of Water Resources this morning of the disinfection system failure.

Specifically, the closure will affect the following waters: All waters of the Kickemuit River and Mt. Hope Bay south of a line from the range marker at the eastern extension of Patterson Avenue in the Laurel Park section of Warren to the flagpole on the opposite eastern shore on the property of #61 Asylum Road in Touisset, and north and west of a line from Bristol Point to the Buoy “R4” channel marker located on the southerly side of the Mount Hope Bay channel, that intersects with a line from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management range marker located approximately midway on Touisset Point to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management range marker located on Common Fence Point in Portsmouth.

DEM plans to reopen the conditionally approved areas of Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River to shellfishing at sunrise on Thursday, March 5, weather permitting.

DEM maintains a 24-hour shellfishing hotline with recorded updated information on shellfish closure areas.  That number is 222-2900.

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