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Dear Blackstone Valley residents and business owners,

Interested in clean water for the Blackstone Valley? Of course you are! So are the many organizations, businesses, agencies, municipalities, and individuals concerned with the regeneration of the Blackstone River and the health of the Blackstone River watershed that together are the Blackstone River Coalition.

As you may know, the water quality of the Blackstone has improved tremendously over the past 30 years, but we still have work to do to bring the river back to good health. The Coalition has launched the Campaign for a Fishable/Swimmable Blackstone River by 2015 to identify and implement strategic actions to restore our waterways, and to involve everyone interested in clean water.

The Campaign works comprehensively at both the grassroots level, and the federal/state agency level. Our initial “Jump In (the water’s going to be fine)” theme increases awareness about what individuals can do, and helps build capacity in our local watershed groups including the Blackstone River Watershed Association, the Blackstone Headwaters Coalition and the Blackstone River Watershed Council in Rhode Island. We have put meat on the bones of the Campaign by determining the priorities to achieve our goal, developing a grassroots education and outreach program to enlist municipalities, homeowners and business owners throughout the watershed. On the agency level, we are working with Jan Reitsma (formerly Director of Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management) to create partnerships with federal and state agencies.

Our goal is an ambitious one: our priorities to get us to fishable/swimmable standards by 2015 include water quality; wetland restoration; river access; bikeway/riverway; land preservation/protection, restoration and economic development; education and outreach; dams; regional vision; and political action. From these items, you can see the depth and breadth of the Campaign.

You may remember way back in 2000, the Blackstone River Expedition set out from Worcester to paddle all the way to Slater Mill in Pawtucket. Along the way they helped focus attention on the River as a great resource for Worcester and the Valley. The enthusiasm generated by that Voyage of Discovery has spawned numerous efforts to restore the River and celebrate the successes of many private and public, local, state and federal partnerships. It is that enthusiasm that has resulted in the creation of the Coalition and the Campaign. Some of the activities under the Campaign umbrella include:

· Under the guidance of the Blackstone River Coalition, a successful water quality monitoring program has grown from 20 sites and 30 volunteers in Worcester, to more than 80 sites and more than 75 volunteers testing every month throughout the entire watershed, with equipment and protocols approved by state and federal agencies.

· Local watershed and pond associations have joined forces to conduct shoreline surveys and have successfully applied for 319 grants to implement water quality improvements at Salisbury Pond, Lake Quinsigamond/Lake Ripple, Indian Lake and Leesville Pond.

· Professors in local colleges (Clark, Holy Cross, Worcester State and WPI) are setting up a “Collaboratory” to coordinate academic research and provide hands-on teaching experience for their students, using the Blackstone as a common laboratory for their science and planning projects.

· For the past three years, the Heritage Corridor-sponsored Paddle Club gets scores of boats out Tuesday and Wednesday summer evenings on the rivers and ponds throughout the Valley.

· The Heritage Corridor has developed a focus on River Restoration and the concept of a Riverway with the bikeway and river access sites to foster regional economic redevelopment.

· Successful ventures such as River Bend Farm in Uxbridge, the Kelley House in Lincoln and the River Landing in Central Falls have inspired activity in Quinsigamond Village, planning for the Northern Gateway Visitor Center, private redevelopment at Fisherville in South Grafton and Cordis Mills in Millbury, and elsewhere along the Blackstone.

At the agency level, on July 21, 22 staff members for MA Department of Environmental Protection and Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, RI Department of Environmental Management and the US EPA gathered at River Bend Farm on the Blackstone in Uxbridge to begin the dialogue to work together on water quality issues and to create a bi-state watershed action plan. The collaboration has already begun in that an interagency data team convened on September 9 to focus on the watershed modeling proposal of the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District. In October we will bring together additional federal and state agencies with our grassroots advocates to further energize the Campaign.

Recently, the Rhode Island legislature and Governor Carcieri created the Narrangansett Bay and Watershed Planning Commission, whose major goal is to reduce nutrient loading to the Bay by 50%. As the Blackstone unfortunately contributes at least 20% of that loading to the Bay in dry weather and up to 50% in wet weather, this new Commission has committed to our Fishable/Swimmable Campaign. Governor Romney has endorsed the creation and the goals of the Commission.

Restoring the Blackstone River is up to us. Won’t you join the Campaign? Please contact Donna Williams (508-753-6087) or Tammy Gilpatrick (508-949-3936) for additional information or with any questions.