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Why protect the Taunton River?
The Taunton River is an estuary of national importance and a vital and essential portion of the Narragansett Bay ecosystem. The lower Taunton River and Mount Hope Bay estuaries are particularly important to larval and juvenile fish
The Nature Conservancy has identified the Taunton River as a globally rare system and as a national priority conservation target.
The Wild and Scenic River Study Committee compiled the cultural and natural assets of the Taunton River that include:
- More than 154 species of birds along the river during breeding season, including bald eagles.
- River otters active along the banks of the river.
- Seals in the upper portion of the river.
- 29 species of native fish, including native brook trout.
- The very rare native sturgeon, which can grow to 14 feet, has been found in the lower Taunton.
- The Nemasket River, which flows into the Taunton River, is the state’s largest Alewife fish run.
- The Taunton River hosts 7 species of freshwater mussels making it among the most diverse water bodies in the state for this rare group of animals.
- Last but not least, the Taunton River is currently being considered for designation as a Wild and Scenic River, all the more reason to ensure that its environmental integrity is not harmed by the proposed Weaver’s Cove LNG facility.
Why oppose the proposed dredging?
Weaver’s Cove is a private project that will result in deepening and new dredging to create a turning basin in an area of the Taunton River for a sole beneficiary—the applicant Hess Weaver’s Cove. The vestigial channel that exists north of the Braga Bridge would not be dredged if it were not for this applicant. This dredging would increase tank vessel traffic in an area that presently experiences little commercial vessel traffic. It would allow more and larger vessels to come up into the Taunton River, increasing risk of collision and other maritime casualties.
The dredging would have three major impacts:
- Suspension of sediments. The dredging itself will suspend sediment into the water column, some of which are known to be contaminated with mercury. The applicant has waived testing of the most contaminated sediments around the project site, opting instead for upland disposal. Save The Bay is concerned that mercury concentrations may reach levels that exceed water quality standards during and immediately following dredging. This could harm migratory fish.
- Burial of habitat at the disposal site. The proposed disposal site in Rhode Island Sound has limited capacity and was designated for Rhode Island dredging projects serving navigation or the public interest. Clearly, this is a Massachusetts-based project and its proposed use of the Rhode Island Sound disposal site will impact the Rhode Island environment via burial of benthic organisms at the disposal site. Furthermore, the material to be dredged for the proposed Weaver’s Cove project is more than 75 percent fine-grained and may not be appropriate for the naturally coarser substrate at the Rhode Island Sound disposal site. It would also use up capacity, without any compensation to Rhode Island for use of these public trust resources.
- Excavation of a deep channel that is more likely to become hypoxic than the existing condition. The potential for increased hypoxia caused by this project is a serious deficiency not addressed by the applicant. Because this increased hypoxia would cause an irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources, we believe that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is compelled to deny the dredging permit for Weaver’s Cove.
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