Save the Bay — Championing the Public’s Right to Access the Shore

Nov 2, 2016

Final Report to New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program Grant # CE96184201

ABSTRACT – In order to ensure access to the coast for residents and visitors to Narragansett Bay, Save The Bay identified the finalization of a GIS dataset of State-designated rights-of-way (ROW) as a strategic objective for the organization over the past year. This, coupled with ground truthing site visits to the ROW currently designated by the RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), will help document sites and their conditions – ensuring that residents and visitors have access to the shore of Narragansett Bay. Of 222 ROW reported by CRMC, Save The Bay found that 216 existed on the ground; five were reported twice in the dataset. Through a partnership with CRMC and Clean Ocean Access, along with a cohort of interns and volunteers, Save The Bay spent the past year visiting all 216 designated ROW assessing and documenting the conditions of each site following the protocols in place through our EPA-approved Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP). Save The Bay has been using the data collected through site visits and assessments to determine if any advocacy or legal action needs to be taken to restore full public access to each site.

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