Introduction to Narragansett Bay

Narragansett Bay has significance well beyond anything that people can count, but even the numbers are impressive. The Bay's 700 billion gallons of water cover 150 square miles. The watershed nurtures thousands of species of plants, fish, and wildlife as well as more than two million residents and ten million tourists each year. Its annual contribution to Rhode Island's economy totals billions of dollars. Its environmental and aesthetic value is priceless.

As an estuary - a place where land and sea waters mix - Narragansett Bay is both extremely productive and extremely vulnerable. Its health depends on nearly everything that happens in its vast watershed (about 2000 square miles, 60% in Massachusetts and 40% in Rhode Island).

The links below are selected to introduce the Bay, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as actions that promise to help sustain it.

For Narragansett Bay and its challenges:

• Map of Narragansett Bay Watershed (EPA)
• About Narragansett Bay (Save the Bay)
• 10 Things You Can Do to Improve Water Quality in RI (RI DEM)
• Narragansett Bay (Narrbay)
• Empact (Narragansett Bay Commission)
• Discovery of Estuarine Environments (EPA/NBC/URI)
• History of Narragansett Bay (EMPACT, Narragansett Bay Commission)
• Narragansett Bay Water Quality: Status and Trends (RI DEM, 2000)
• Groups Working on the Watershed for Narragansett Bay (EPA)
• Narragansett Bay Watershed Coastal Training Program (NBWCTP)
• Rhode Island Sea Grant (URI Sea Grant)
• RI Bays, Rivers and Watersheds Coordination Team
• Developing a Collective Vision, Core Principles and Goals for Narragansett Bay, Coastal RI and Their Watersheds in RI, MA and CT - Technical Report (Partnership for Narragansett Bay, 2003)
• Providence River and Harbor Dredging Project (RI DEM)

For Contexts and Nearby Comparisons:

• What You Can Do To Prevent Polluted Runoff, Nonpoint Source Pollution (EPA)
• Eyes on The Bay (MD Dept. of Natural Resources)
• Long Island Sound Water Quality Program and Information (CT Dept. of Environmental Protection)
• Long Island Sound Water Quality Monitoring Program (CT Department of Environmental Protection)
• USGS Studies in Long Island Sound: Geology, Contaminants, and Environmental Issues (USGS)
• Long Island Sound Study (LISS)
• Nutrient Pollution of Coastal Rivers, Bays, and Seas (Howarth et al., 2000)
• Ambient Water Quality Criteria For Dissolved Oxygen, Water Clarity and Chlorophyll for Chesapeake Bay and Its Tidal Tributaries (Chesapeake Bay Program, EPA)