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Save the Bay warns of accelerating coastal risks, urges funding, staffing and regulatory fixes
Summary
Jed Thorpe of Save the Bay told the House committee that Narragansett Bay faces rising seas, warming waters, increased stormwater pollution and microplastic contamination, and urged more staffing for DEM and CRMC, new funding approaches and stronger enforcement against illegal shoreline hardening.
Jed Thorpe, director of advocacy at Save the Bay, told the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources that climate change is the single biggest threat to Narragansett Bay and laid out a series of environmental challenges and policy priorities.
Thorpe said sea levels have risen roughly 10 inches since 1930 and that the region could see about 18 more inches by 2050. He described changes to water temperature, fisheries and runoff-driven pollution and warned that hard-wall shoreline armoring — seawalls, revetments and breakwaters — buries habitat, blocks public access and exacerbates erosion on adjacent properties. He said Save the Bay staff mapped the bay-facing shoreline and found roughly 152 miles of bay-facing beach with about 16% (approximately 25 miles) already hardened, and about 96 miles of salt marsh with nearly 7% (about 7 miles) hardened.
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