CSREES New England Water Quality Programming in Rhode Island
University of Rhode Island (URI) Cooperative Extension Water Quality Program
University of Rhode Island (URI) Cooperative Extension
University of Rhode Island (URI) Agricultural Experiment Station
Agricultural Nutrient and Pest Management
State Contacts
Riparian
buffers can be an important tool in nutrient and pesticide management.
Buffer research is
being conducted at URI.
Pro
New England is
a collaborative of the six New England Land Grant Universities
and their Cooperative Extension programs working together to
communicate IPM research and information with a regional focus.
University
of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension IPM 
Related Research:
| Project ID |
Title |
Investigator(s) |
Affiliation |
| 0174333 |
RHODE ISLAND'S 1997 CSREES NAPIAP PROGRAM |
Alm, S. R. |
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND |
| 0198448 |
GROUNDWATER NITRATE REMOVAL CAPACITY OF RIPARIAN ZONES IN MIXED USE WATERSHEDS |
Gold, A. J. |
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND |
| 0182775 |
SUBSURFACE RIPARIAN N REMOVAL: THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE SETTING |
Gold, A. J.; Groffman, P. M.; Stolt, M.; Addy, K. |
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND |
| 0188376 |
CONTROL OF NITRATE IN WATERSHEDS AFFECTED BY UNSEWERED RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT |
Gold, A. J.; Loomis, G.; Addy, K.; Green, L |
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND |
| 0174445 |
INTEGRATED TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ENHANCEMENT AND RESOURCE CONSERVATION |
Jackson, N. , Alm, S. R. , and Hull, R. J. |
UNIV OF RHODE ISLAND |
| 0179673 |
INCREASING ROOT ZONE DEPTH AND SEASONAL EFFICACY FOR CONSTRUCTED WETLAND FILTERS |
Maynard, B. K. |
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND |
Animal Waste Management
State Contacts
Riparian
buffers can be an important tool in nutrient and pesticide management. Buffer
research is
being conducted at URI.
URI Cooperative Extension created an education
program for small acreage livestock owners .
The
URI Watershed
Hydrology Lab is
collaborating with the CT NEMO
Program and
the USDA NRCS Rhode Island to adapt and examine the use of bioretention
filters for small livestock operations. Treatment of leachate
from composted manure and runoff from heavy use horse paddocks
will be the initial focus of the work. Results will be incorporated
into URI Cooperative Extension’s small
acreage livestock education program .
This team recently gave a presentation on "Bio-infiltration
and Bio-reactors: New WQ BMPs for Agricultural Applications in
Southern RI?" 
at
the Southern New England Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservaton
Society's Low Impact Development Workshop.
New England Private Well Initiative
State Contacts
URI
Cooperative Extension In partnership with U.S. EPA New England, the
Water Systems Council, New England’s state drinking water agencies,
Dartmouth University and others, the 2005 New England Private Well
Water Symposium was held in Portsmouth, NH, and provided a forum
for professionals to share current research, approaches and materials.
Almost 100 individuals attended from a cross-section of federal, state,
university, nonprofit and private sector groups. Ninety-five percent of
36 post-event survey respondents reported a significant increase in knowledge
in at least on of the symposium topic areas. View the 2005
Symposium Final Report and the 2005
Symposium Proceedings for more information. This event is
planned again for December 2007 in Newport, RI.
A
tri-fold brochure on private well testing and protection has been developed
forRhode
Island 
.
The brochures will be distributed along with accompanying display board
to public places within RI.
A study at the URI is examining the effects of aeration
technology on
the ability of septic sytem leachfields to remove antibiotics from wastewater,
on the antibiotic resistance of fecal coliform bacteria, and on the improvement
of water quality. Also at URI, a drinking
water treatment research and teaching laboratory is
being developed. This laboratory will be used for water treatment research
as well as to teach both students and operators about advanced drinking water
treatment processes.
Researchers
at URI Watershed
Hydrology Laboratory determined landscape
controls of riparian zone groundwater nitrate removal 
.
These insights were translated into methods that can be adapted to
available spatial databases and enhanced our ability to target high value
riparian zones for protection and restoration to improve or maintain water
quality. The URI
NEMO Program (Nonpoint
Education for Municipal Officials) has incorporated these results into
their programming with municipal officials and modeling efforts. Additional
research at the Watershed Hydrology Laboratory is examining the effect
watershed land use practices on
the hydrology, soils, and groundwater nitrate removal function of riparian
zones.
URI,
UConn and ASU are collaborating on a new CSREES Integrated project
that will gain more insight into sources
and sinks of nitrate and
translate results into a model to be tested extensively and distributed
via the National NEMO
Network .
The Watershed
Hydrology course at
URI incorporates field and demonstration labs highlighting several
aspects of New England Regional Water Program, including learning about groundwater
recharge and well-water protection.
New England NEMO
State Contacts
Under
the EPA-funded National
Community Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Demonstration Project ,
the URI
NEMO (Nonpoint
Education for Municipal Officials) program and the URI
Onsite Wastewater Training Center are
working to build local capacity for management of onsite wastewater systems.
Three coastal communities are establishing comprehensive municipal wastewater
management ordinances to inspect, maintain, retrofit and upgrade onsite
treatment systems incorporating selective use of advanced treatment systems
in a watershed-based approach.
The URI
NEMO program
developed the MANAGE
(Method for Assessment, Nutrient-loading, and Geographic Evaluation
of watersheds) model .
By applying a simplified hydrologic / nutrient loading model to specific
soils and land use types in study areas. URI NEMO program provides
community-customized outreach programs to help rural communities and land
trusts identify and evaluate pollution risks related to land use and onsite
wastewater disposal. Based on such assessments, several RI communities adopted
town wastewater management ordinances requiring septic system inspection,
repair and upgrading to protect local groundwater supplies and coastal waters.
For example, in one town, all cesspools will be replaced with 6,000 onsite
wastewater treatment systems.
URI NEMO and Geospatial
Technology Programs have
developed a new web resource on land cover change in RI, that is based
on CT NEMO's Connecticut
Changing Landscape website.
RI has one of the most complete, high resolution GIS
databases assembled
for any large area housed at the URI
Environmental Data Center .
To enable local officials, resource managers and land developers to take
advantage of this data storehouse, URI Cooperative Extension has developed
the Rapid
Site Assessment Guide .
This guide describes how basic Rhode Island Atlas GIS maps and higher resolution
RIGIS coverages can be used to systematically inventory natural resources
and screen site suitability for development.
URI,
CT NEMO, and ASU will trasmit their developed
environmental spatial decision support system to
NEMO programs and NRCS. This tool will help communities and NRCS to
isolate and protect watershed areas where nitrogen pollution removal is expected
and focus efforts on reducing sources of nitrogen in watersheds with
little pollution removal capacity.
The URI
Policy Simulation Laboratory is
developing computer-based
tools to
help communities plan with knowledge of the impacts of development
on ecosystems, water quality, town finances, and the character of the community.
Researchers
at the URI Watershed
Hydrology Laboratory have
worked in riparian zones, streams and reservoirs to refine the understanding
of nitrogen removal in watersheds. Their results are translated into
methods that can be adapted to available spatial databases and enhance
our ability to target high value areas for protection and restoration to
improve or maintain water quality.
URI Watershed
Hydrology course
incorporates field and demonstration labs on a variety of water quality
topics including geospatial analysis of water quality risk indicators for
community-based watershed management.
The CSREES
integrated project with
URI, UConn and ASU is creating new curricula and training opportunities
for undergraduate (URI Coastal
Fellows Program )
and graduate students (NSF funded IGERT
PhD training program at
URI) to provide insights into watershed nitrogen dynamics and understanding
of the rigor required to develop accessible decision support tools
for coastal decision makers. Both programs have outcome assessment structures
to determine educational value for these efforts.
River and
Stream Restoration
The River
and Stream Crossing Continuity Project at
UMass inventories and addresses barriers to fish movement and
river and stream continuity. This project has expanded
the online
database for
road-stream crossings to accomodate more than 2,300 volunteer-based surveys
collected in CT, RI, VT and NH. Data and computed scores from
the database are available for viewing and may be downloaded
from the web site. Elements of this project's River
and Stream Crossing Standards
have been incorporated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers into
the Programmatic General Permits (PGP) for MA, ME, CT and RI.
Research
at the URI is focusing on the role
of in-stream nitrate removal .
This research will improve our understanding of basic watershed
processes as well as provide insight to managers in targeting stream management
and restoration for the reduction of watershed nitrogen.
Sustainable Landscaping
State Contacts
Partnerships
with URI Master
Gardener Programs provide
water quality information for volunteers responding to consumer questions.
Master Gardeners participate in a variety of landscaping projects
within RI.
Voluntary pollution prevention
education programs ,
modeled after the National Home*A*Syst Program, train residents and
local volunteers in Rhode
Island to
identify and reduce water quality risks in and around the home.
The
URI Coastal
Landscapes Program conducted
2 pilot training courses for over 100 landscape professionals as part
of a "coastal landscape certification" program. In the near
future, RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) will require
that landscape professionals working in CRMC jurisdiction be certified
in topics ranging from rain gardens, turf management, invasive species
and buffer zone re-vegetation.
URI
Cooperative Extension Focus area members partnered with the Northeast
IPM Center and Mid-Atlantic Regional Water Program to organize the
present at the first Green-Blue Summit on residential pest management,
nutrients, and water quality. People from across the Northeast attended
the Summit. As a result, the Northeast IPM Center released an RFA for
projects focused on educating residents in the Northeast on how using
IPM in residential structures and landscapes can affect water quality.
The summit released a listing of comments
and suggestions on
what the focus issues should be.
The Healthy
Landscapes Project at
URI educates homeowners on pollution prevention
best management practices that they can implement in their backyards
to protect water quality (McCann,
2004 ).
One output of the project was the creation of educational materials
on rain
gardens.
More than 500 URI Master Gardeners were trained about sustainable landscaping
practices. Over 80% of the individuals (in Healthy Landscapes program
evaluation) indicated a willingness to change their yard care practices
to better protect their water quality. More than 54% of respondents
have adopted at least one sustainable landscaping practice.
An Integrated Project between UNH, Portsmouth State College, UConn,
URI, UVM, and UMaine applies
environmental and behavioral research results to
extension efforts to reduce the application of excess nutrients by
homeowners in targeted, urbanizing neighborhoods throughout New England.
URI
researchers are developing a better understanding of the fate
of fertilizers and pesticides in turfgrass systems in order
to develop and evaluate BMPs that protect water quality.
Researchers
at URI are evaluating biorational
strategies to manage numerous pests in
Rhode Island turfgrasses.
Researchers
at the URI Watershed
Hydrology Laboratory have
worked in riparian zones, streams and reservoirs to refine the understanding
of nitrogen removal in watersheds. Their results are translated into
methods that can be adapted to available spatial databases and enhance
our ability to target high value areas for protection and restoration
to improve or maintain water quality.
A
project at URI introduced
the U.S. ornamental nursery industry to sustainable, pest-resistant
trees and shrubs .
Major growers and landscapers in the northeast attended workshops and
cooperated in growing trial production blocks. A related project at
URI developed
and evaluated novel alternative methods of plant propagation and production that
will lead to reduced chemical inputs, thereby protecting water resources.
Plant
Science Department professors at the University of Rhode Island collaborate
with the Healthy
Landscapes Program,
a CSREES-funded Extension Education project. Students learn about pollution
prevention best management practices to protect drinking water and
assist in the development of demonstration sites.
Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring
State Contacts
The URI
Watershed Watch Program (URIWW),
with the URI Cooperative
Extension Water Quality Program ,
focuses on providing current information on the water quality of
surface water resources throughout Rhode Island. It is a service provider
to statewide and local decision-makers and is the sole source of long-term
lake water quality data for RI. URIWW monitoring efforts on Stafford Pond
motivated local residents and farmers to determine the cause of water quality
problems within the watershed. As a result, manure management practices
on a nearby farm were improved and stormwater problems were rectified. The
efforts fostered further watershed collaboration with other Cooperative
Extension projects including URI Home*A*Syst, Nonpoint
Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) program,
and On-site
Wastewater Training Center .
The New
England Regional Monitoring Collaborative (NERMC) was
formed by the New England Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring programs
and coordinates the delivery of training and related services regionally.
In 2005, NERMC brought together federal, state, and volunteer water
quality monitoring partners at the New England Monitoring Summit to
develop a sustainable support system for volunteer monitoring. Following
the summit, a final report outlined
recommendations to ensure adequate resources and technical support
to sustain and expand volunteer water quality monitoring efforts in
New England.
The National
Facilitation of CSREES Volunteer Monitoring Efforts Project, a
cooperative effort between the Universities of Rhode Island and Wisconsin,
built a comprehensive support system for the 38 identified Extension-related
volunteer water quality monitoring programs across the country. Project
leaders were featured on a U.S. EPA watershed academy webcast "Getting
Started in Volunteer Monitoring".
By assuming the leadership role as a national service provider for
these programs, this project has improved communication, information
sharing and coordination among programs, researchers, and partners
within states, across regions, and nationally.
The URI
Watershed Watch program
conducted a study comparing volunteer collected
data with professional collected data. They found no significant
differences between the two adding support to volunteer data credibility.
For more information, contact Linda
Green.
The University
of Rhode Island (URI) Watershed Watch Program annually
sponsors two to three students in the URI
Coastal Fellows Program ,
an experiential learning program that enables students to engage in
research and Extension efforts.
Related Water Quality Information in Rhode Island
Digital Atlases
RI Geographic Information System (RIGIS) Homepage
Rhode Island Critical Resources Atlas
USEPA's EnviroMapper for Rhode Island
Total Maximum Daily Load Program
Rhode
Island's TMDL Program
Source Water Assessment Program (SWAP)
Rhode Island Source Water Program
Storm Water Phase II Program
USEPA's Storm Water Regulations for New England
RIPDES Phase Storm Water Program
