Watershed Partnerships: Forging an Alliance Around the Pawcatuck
Patricia Hickey, Graduate Student
URI Coastal Resources Center
Patricia Hickey is working on a regional planning initiative with RI Sea Grant through the Coastal Resources Center. She did her undergraduate work at the University of California at Santa Cruz and is pursuing a master's degree in community planning at URI.
The Pawcatuck watershed, a
308-square mile area in southern Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut,
is a rural oasis amidst the heavily populated Northeast corridor of New England.
It contains 70 percent of the rare and endangered species found in Rhode Island,
some of the most extensive tracts of nonfragmented habitat in southern New England,
high quality (according to federal standards) surface waters, and vitally important
groundwater resources. In 1988, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
designated the groundwater resources of the watershed a sole-source aquifer,
which signifies that at least 50 percent of the population living in the watershed
region is entirely dependent on local groundwater resources for drinking water.
Because of these attributes, and at the request of people who live and work
in the watershed, the Pawcatuck watershed was selected by state and federal
environmental agencies as the site of a pilot study to test new collaborative
environmental management practices.
The Pawcatuck Watershed Partnership (PWP) has
brought together more than 40 government agencies, local organizations, and
municipal representatives to coordinate and focus management efforts on the
issues and concerns that are most important to the people who live and work
in the watershed. PWP addresses problems of local concern by utilizing the technical
expertise of universities and federal and state agencies and the knowledge of
local organizations. One of its first accomplishments was to compile information
on the natural resources of the watershed for the Pawcatuck Watershed Report.
The 14-Town Action Committee (14-TAC), comprising
community-based organizations and town officials, was formed to bring a strong,
well-defined local perspective to PWP meetings and activities. 14-TAC began
by conducting an extensive survey of local concerns and interests. Interviews
were conducted with representatives from more than 40 community groups concerned
with the watershed. Those interviews resulted in a brochure entitled What
is the Future of the Pawcatuck Watershed? The Future You Want!
This local initiative enabled 14-TAC, and subsequently
PWP, to more clearly gauge and articulate opportunities for and threats to the
Pawcatuck watershed. It also helped galvanize local support and increase awareness
of issues of regional concern. For example, drinking water resources in the
Pawcatuck watershed overlap the boundaries of two states, 14 towns, and one
Native American nation. The watershed's sole-source aquifer provides the only
drinking water for the approximately 60,0000 people living in the watershed
region. As development pressures continue to increase in the coming decades,
so will concerns about the safety of the source of drinking water. PWP is fostering
municipal and agency cooperation to ensure protection of this critical resource.
14-TAC also serves as an advocacy group for sustainable
development practices in the watershed by monitoring development trends and
activities. For example, the group successfully lobbied for and initiated a
technical review of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed highway
expansion project. The proposed Route 2 transportation improvement project in
Stonington and North Stonington, Connecticut, is slated for development over
the region's sole-source aquifer recharge area. If the EIS review had determined
that the development project would significantly impact the quality of groundwater
resources in the watershed, the project would be ineligible for federal monies
because of sole-source aquifer legal protections.
At the request of 14-TAC, technical experts from
PWP worked with local citizens and officials from the State of Connecticut,
reviewed the EIS prepared for the project, and raised questions that are now
being addressed by project engineers. In response to the organized efforts of
14-TAC, EPA Region 1 Administrator John DeVillars has requested further study
of the impacts from roadway development on groundwater and other natural resources
in the Pawcatuck watershed region. He has requested that local residents be
more formally engaged in defining transportation development solutions during
the EIS process.
PWP actively works to enhance interagency cooperation
and program coordination in the watershed. Government agency involvement in
PWP has helped shift federal and state environmental management efforts towards
a better understanding of local conditions and priorities. Federal agencies,
such as U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service,
and EPA, work collaboratively with local decision-makers and state agencies.
During the last few years, these agencies have provided significant funding
to an array of local watershed projects and programs.
At the state level, a number of government agencies
have committed staff time and funding to partnership efforts. For instance,
the RI Department of Environmental Management, Division of Water Resources,
took the lead in organizing the Pawcatuck Watershed Partnership's Water Use
Stakeholders Group. Formed in March 1997, this group of private, public, municipal,
and agency representatives worked together to find solutions for sustainable
water use in the watershed region. The group is sponsoring an important pilot
project in the Queen-Usquepaug River sub-basin in the northeastern section of
the watershed that may become a model for non-regulatory water-use management
in the larger Pawcatuck watershed. Project coordinators are working to enlist
the support of all water use interests in the pilot area. With the help of the
U.S. Geological Survey, the group will study and quantify how much water is
available in the sub-basin. This information will then provide a basis for managing
future water use in an equitable manner.
As a pilot project for experimenting with new
forms of collaborative management, PWP has proved relatively successful in its
first three years. It has brought together a diverse group of individuals and
organizations, fostered collaborative thinking and activities, and forged new
working relationships and networks. One of the Partnership's greatest challenges
was to overcome traditional biases and misgivings between local stakeholders
and government agencies. PWP has succeeded in establishing new levels of trust,
cooperation, and understanding among stakeholder groups.