Politics & Government

Town Water Officials Weigh In On Wickford Junction, Part Two

In the wake of last week's Town Council 3-2 vote in favor of a zone change at Wickford Junction, Water Quality Specialist Tim Cranston and Director of Water Supply Sue Licardi offered their views on the change. We posted Tim Cranston's Friday. Today Sue Licardi offers her thoughts:

To add my more boring scientific/research based perspective – information coming out of the U.S. EPA Office of Sustainable Communities Smart Growth Program demonstrates that our historic approach to protecting our ground and surfaces waters through low density development may actually be more harmful to water resources. As we have discussed many times, most of the growth we are experiencing is taking place along the edges of already developed areas – in undisturbed natural areas. The development of previously undisturbed land can significantly modify how water is transported and stored and create compacted impervious surfaces that filter less water and decrease groundwater recharge. These land use changes also increase the amount as well as the velocity of surface water runoff resulting in more severe and frequent flooding.  

Two key points that we have long recognized are that more impervious cover means more degradation of water quality and that preserving open space is absolutely critical to maintaining our water quality. This needs to be managed on a watershed level rather than on a site by site basis. Instead of going on at length I will just mention the primary findings of the EPA which are:

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  • If growth is coming to the region, limiting density on a given site does not eliminate that growth. Density limits constrain the amount of development on a site but have little effect on the regions total growth.
  • The pervious surface left in low-density development often acts like impervious surface, so a one or two acre lawn does not offer the same infiltration or other water quality functions as a one or two acre undisturbed site.
  • Density and imperviousness are not equivalent and low density developments often mean more off-site impervious infrastructure. Water quality suffers not only from the increase in impervious surface, but also the associated activities: construction increased travel to and from the development, and the extension of infrastructure.

I think (at least from my perspective) the question to be answered is would we prefer that all the land in our groundwater zones be developed at low density to within 400-feet* of our public drinking water wellheads and hope that the degradation to water quality is not so bad or do we take proactive steps and make regulatory changes that offer a more comprehensive approach to protecting our drinking watershed. The benefit of protecting natural land areas around our wellheads is straightforward and easy to understand based on the facts. The benefit of the TOD zoning as proposed is that it will serve to alleviate the pressure to develop this area in a way that is protective of the groundwater resources and sustainable in the future.

* Radius around the well that we are required to control/own by RI Department of Heath Regulations   

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Susan E. Licardi, North Kingstown Director of Water Supply

 

 


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