NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

The Moshassuck River- Facts/Tree Planting & Kleenup

Facts from the Estuary Survey

Moshassuck River Watershed
HUC 12: 010900040502

Watershed Description: The Moshassuck River watershed encompasses 15,139 acres, or approximately 23.6 square miles. The Moshassuck River begins in Lincoln, Rhode Island, and flows ten miles into Providence where it meets the Woonasquatucket River. At that point the waters of the two rivers combine to form the Providence River, which joins the waters of the Blackstone/Seekonk system, which flow to Narragansett Bay and the sea.

Towns: The watershed includes portions of the Rhode Island municipalities of Lincoln, Smithfield, Central Falls, North Providence, Pawtucket and Providence.

Rivers, streams, lakes and ponds: The Moshassuck River begins in Lincoln, RI. It is joined by the drainage from Olney Pond (through Threadmill Brook) and the West River. The West River watershed includes Wenscott Reservoir and Canada Pond.

CSOs
According to the Narragansett Bay Commission, twelve combined sewer overflows discharge to the Moshassuck River watershed: 10 to the river directly, and 2 to the West River, a tributary of the Moshassuck. (http://www.narrabay.com/rivers.asp)

Dams
According to the State of Rhode Island 2006 Annual Report to the Governor on the Activities of the Dam Safety Program (http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/compinsp/pdf/damrpt06.pdf) there are 22 dams on the Moshassuck, West River or tributaries. Three dams are listed as high hazard (Barney Pond dam on the Moshassuck, Bleachery Pond dam on the Moshasssuck, Limerock Reservoir on the Moshassuck) and one is listed as posing a significant hazard (Geneva Pond dam on the West River).

Water Quality Status

Rivers and Streams

The following sections of the Moshassuck River watershed are not meeting their designated uses and are listed on the state’s 2006 list of impaired waters (303 d list) (http://www.dem.ri.gov/pubs/303d/index.htm)

• Moshassuck River and tributaries from the first CSO discharge point at Weeden Street Bridge to the confluence with the Woonasquatucket River is impacted by pathogens due to CSOs. This impact is being addressed by the Narragansett Bay Commission’s facilities plan.
• West River and tributaries from the first CSO discharge point located south of the Branch Ave. crossing to the confluence with the Moshassuck River is impacted by pathogens due to CSOs. This impact is being addressed by the Narragansett Bay Commission’s facilities plan.


Lakes and Ponds

URI Watershed Watch volunteers monitor the following lakes and ponds in the Moshassuck River watershed. The Trophic Class is from URI WW multi year assessment ( http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/ww/data/MultiyrLocations.htm)

Information on Access/Use and Impairment/Cause for publicly owned lakes are from the draft 2006 State of the State Waters Report, pp III.E-11.

Lake Town Trophic Class Access/Use Impairment/Cause
Wenscott Reservoir Lincoln, North Providence
Smithfield Mesotrophic
Olney Pond Lincoln Mesotrophic State park and beach, boat launch, stocked trout
Barney Pond Lincoln Eutrophic Town fishing access, state park phosphorus
Wenscott Reservoir North Providence Mesotrophic


Water Quality Studies: TMDL
http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/water/quality/rest/reports.htm

There is no TMDL scheduled for the Moshassuck River watershed.

Water Quality Trends

Water quality (pathogens) in the Moshassuck and West Rivers should improve once the CSO abatement project is fully on-line.

Water quality in the watershed’s urban lakes and ponds is impaired due to the urban nature of the watershed. Stormwater management initiatives and other recommended BMPs will improve water quality.

Water Use and Availability
From: Water Use and Availability in the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck River Basins, North Central RI (USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5031) (http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5031/)

Water supply in the Moshassuck watershed is imported from the Scituate Reservoir in the Pawtuxet watershed and from the Blackstone watershed (Pawtucket Water Supply Board and Lincoln Water Commission). Wastewater is collected by the Narragansett Bay Commission and disposed outside the basin.


Flow (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ri/nwis/current/?type=flow)

The USGS has 1 gage in the Moshasssuck watershed:

01114000 Moshassuck River at Providence, RI

Habitat Restoration

Anadromous Fish
DEM has determined that although there is local interest in restoring the Moshassuck River, the poor water quality and high number of dams make other watersheds more attractive.

Grassroots River and Watershed Organizations

Friends of the Moshassuck (http://www.themoshassuck.org/)

Resources/Links

RI Department of Environmental Management, Rhode Island Section 303(d) Lists of Impaired Waters (http://www.dem.ri.gov/pubs/303d/index.htm)

RI Department of Environmental Management, 2004 State of the State Waters Report http://www.dem.ri.gov/pubs/305b/

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Strategic Plan for the Restoration of Anadromous Fishes to Rhode Island Coastal Streams, Dennis Erkan, December 2002.
http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/fishwild/pdf/riap2002.pdf


Governor’s Task Force on Dam Safety and Maintenance (2001)
(http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/compinsp/pdf/damrep01.pdf)

Narragansett Bay Commission: Our bays and rivers
http://www.narrabay.com/rivers.asp

URI Watershed Watch Multiyear Lake Assessments
http://www.uri.edu/ce/wq/ww/data/MultiyrLocations.htm

Water Use and Availability in the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck River Basins, North Central RI (USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5031) (http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2005/5031/)

Scott Turner: The little valley that could

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, October 17, 2009

SCOTT TURNER

WHEN I NEEDED a safe place during childhood I snuck into a nearby garage, snuggled in my own thoughts and dozed off.

I think of that haven when I visit the Moshassuck River. Cool, damp, serene, sometimes smelling of oil and gas, home to Roger Williams and the Industrial Revolution, it’s the “river where moose watered” long ago.

The Moshassuck, with its beginnings in the tiny streams of Lime Rock, in Lincoln, slices through a valley once the natural course of the Blackstone River until ice jammed it eons ago. Look west from College Hill to the 180-foot summit of Windmill Hill to witness the Moshassuck’s natural corridor.

It is “an old, old path,” said Greg Gerritt, founder of Friends of the Moshassuck, an advocacy, protection and restoration group. The valley was a main line before, during, and after the American Revolution, when manufacturing was king in Rhode Island, and the river served as industrial sewer for mills, metal works and textile factories.

Today the Moshassuck shares the valley with hundreds of homes and commercial properties, and major routes, including Route 95, Amtrak and MBTA rail lines, and North Main Street. At least 29 roadways cross the river across several communities.

Last week, I ran into Gerritt on my way to the river. We walked over to Collyer Park. Although the whine of interstate traffic dominated, I could still hear the water rippling over fallen trees.

We stood under a red maple on the stonework of the channeled bank.

Sunlight pierced the crimson foliage, illuminating the river bottom.

The summer algae and sewage smell were gone.

Gerritt said that in about 10 years, completion of the Narragansett Bay Commission’s combined sewage project would finally rid the Moshassuck of human waste.

In Collyer Park, the Friends of Moshassuck has transformed a field of invasive Japanese knotweed into a budding river bottom forest of red and silver maple, sweetgum, red oak, river birch and white ash. The trees produce shade that suppresses the knotweed.

Japanese knotweed spreads rapidly into dense thickets, particularly along shorelines, withstanding drought, flooding and high heat. It can reach 10 feet in height, with broad, oval pointy tipped leaves.

I’ve watched the trees planted by the Friends spread from atolls into a growing riparian forest, and the knotweed underneath begin to whither.

A trail of thick black plastic, dotted with the lemon-yellow land snails that congregate on it, winds through the new forest, which produces a fruit cereal display of gold, orange, red, purple and yellow in late October.

When a train in the valley discharged a three-second wistful warning whistle, I thought of our restructuring world in which so many people live in constant fear and uncertainty.

Restoring the health of local environments is a way to repair the world, Gerritt said. “If we don’t heal ecosystems, we won’t make it on this planet.”

Once, the Moshassuck fueled the greatest nation on Earth. Then the river was left to die.

Still, the not-always-pretty Moshassuck flows to the sea. From its banks, Gerritt has seen menhaden, suckers and sunfish, fox, muskrat and herons.

Repair work by the Friends of the Moshassuck reminds me that mending can take a long time.

I once found refuge in a dark garage. There is light along the banks of the river, where a group of people believe they can transform the survival of an individual resource into a meaningful community for all.

I believe that if you give animals, plants and the landscape a chance, they all return.

Scott Turner is a Providence-based nature writer. His columns appear here each Saturday ( scottturnerster@gmail.com).

Camp Meehan development to be resolved

Camp meehan open space issue again

Tree Planting and Kleenup in April

Check calendar for specific times or contact Greg Gerrit or Arthur Plitt for details

Email us
gerritt@mindspring.com

Links

Scientific Information from the US
Dam Safety Report
Check out N.Providence
Projo Article from October
Friends of the Moshassuck website with pictures along the river