- [Michelle] Tonight, a toxic pond in Providence contaminated for decades.

- If this pond was in East Greenwich or Barrington, you might see a different response to the pollution that's in it.

(siren wails) - [Pamela] Then, how bad is noise pollution in our area?

- Providence in particular is really loud.

It's on the lines of what I measured when I was in Boston.

- And what's in and what's out of Rhode Island's new $14 billion state budget bill with Ted Nesi.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) Good evening and welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We begin with a toxic body of water in Providence.

- Mashapaug Pond has long been off limits for recreational use due to contamination, and while the pollution may appear to be isolated within the pond's banks, it eventually feeds into and contaminates Narraganset Bay.

Tonight we take a look at a new plan by the state to clean up the pond and hold polluters responsible.

This story is part of our Green Seeker series.

Tucked behind businesses, homes, and industrial sites sits the largest body of fresh water in Providence, Mashapaug Pond.

Suzannah Rutherford bought a home overlooking the water six years ago.

- It's just so open when you stand here and look out.

I mean, it's beautiful.

It's just like you see more sky, you feel like you have a larger expanse of yard.

- [Michelle] Rutherford fell in love with the scenic views from her gazebo, but she also had her share of questions.

Signs around the water warn Mashapaug Pond is sick.

- I was very concerned, so I did a lot of research before we moved here.

- [Michelle] For nearly 100 years, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, one of the largest producers of Sterling Silver, operated a factory by the pond and dumped toxic byproducts into the water.

- Gorham Silver was in the cove at the other end of the pond and dumped a lot of solvents in the water.

So I read about the remediation efforts.

I spoke to a few environmental scientists at Brown University.

- [Michelle] Those remediation efforts included dredging the pond's cove in 2015.

These days, pollution left behind from Gorham is not the primary source of contamination in Mashapaug Pond, it's storm water runoff, which can produce a blue green algae, known as cyanobacteria.

- It's an environmental problem of our time that I feel like people are going to be very motivated to figure out how to deal with it eventually.

- [Michelle] Topher Hamblett is one of them.

He's the executive director of the conservation organization, Save the Bay.

- No matter who you are or where you live, you have a right to clean water, period.

And I think it's a travesty that people who live around this pond can't enjoy it as people can enjoy other waters around Rhode Island.

- [Michelle] Storm water runoff, Hamblett says, is causing excess nutrients, like phosphorus, to enter Mashapaug Pond, and it's susceptible to polluted runoff because it's surrounded by impervious surfaces, like asphalt and concrete.

- This whole watershed's a mix of some park areas like we're sitting in now, but also some very wide open, heavily paved areas.

The water, when water hits pavement, it can't go into the ground.

It has to go somewhere, and that's one of the reasons why we see ponds like this so polluted.

- [Michelle] Since at least 1998, Mashapaug Pond has been listed on Rhode Island's list of impaired waters because of the contamination.

- No one likes to see a pond that's covered in green scum or other types of invasive flora that just cover the whole surface of the pond.

A lot of it is, I believe, is getting driven by climate change as well.

- [Michelle] Terry Gray is the director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, or DEM.

He says warmer waters and more frequent intense storms are adding to the problem.

- When we see these unbelievable short bursts of rainfall, that creates a huge slug of stormwater that's being introduced into our water bodies, and those slugs can really trigger bacterial growth and algae growth.

- [Michelle] Awareness about algae growth has increased in the community.

It's an important message for Loren Spears, a Narragansett Tribal Citizen.

- Water, as the slogan goes, is life.

We need it.

It's a giving force.

- [Michelle] The banks of the pond were once home to a thriving Narraganset settlement.

- Our ancestors have lived here, but also our contemporary ancestors, if you will, just a generation ago, were living on and around this pond.

- [Michelle] Spears credits a decade of annual processions held around the pond with helping to raise awareness about the contamination.

- The average person knew a lot about what was happening here, and it kind of rises to the political entities that can do something about it and puts more pressure on them to do something about it.

- [Michelle] Environmental groups and state agencies have taken note.

In 2018, the Conservation Law Foundation, or CLF, petitioned DEM to require businesses to control stormwater runoff.

But that petition went unanswered.

Then earlier this year, the Rhode Island Attorney General's office got involved.

- We filed our own petition.

We got involved because we've seen the algae blooms in some of our most critical urban ponds.

You can see in the summertime, it's this really bright lime green stuff, algae, on top of these ponds.

- [Michelle] DEM recently announced about 70 businesses near Mashapaug Pond Watershed in Providence and Cranston will be required to control runoff.

The agency's director, Terry Gray, says, in the short term, commercial and industrial properties will have to take basic housekeeping steps, like picking up leaf litter and clearing storm drains.

- A lot of times what happens is the rain flushes nitrogen and phosphorus out of that material by flowing through it, and then the water, which could look perfectly clear, carries those materials downstream and boom.

What that is, is that's food for the organisms that are living in the pond naturally.

And if you over feed 'em, boom, you get this bloom that people see towards the end of the summer every year.

- I have heard from a few people who say, "Look, telling people to clean up their leaf litter or sweep their parking lots doesn't go far enough.

We're asking people for the bare minimum."

- That's where we have to start.

One of the things we may ask some of the property owners to do is to put measures in place to keep that stormwater on your site.

That could include pervious pavement, rain gardens, tree wells.

These are all sort of technologies that are more current that get the water back in the ground, and then it's not flowing over the surface of the land as stormwater.

- Oh my gosh, it's so deep.

- [Michelle] Suzannah Rutherford will be among the first to know if the water quality is improving on Mashapaug Pond.

She's also a volunteer with the University of Rhode Island's Watershed Watch program, which measures water quality.

On this day, Rutherford and a neighbor were out collecting samples.

- We monitor visibility, which is an indicator of how many bacteria or algae are blooming.

We test for chlorophyll content.

We test for dissolved oxygen.

So one of the problems when you have overgrowth from runoff from fertilizer and stuff, that the oxygen lower down, it goes down to the point where fish can't survive.

- Some animals still make their home here, like this swan we saw gliding across the water.

We also spotted a turtle perched on a log.

Topher Hamblett from Save the Bay says cleaning this pond is an environmental justice issue.

Ultimately, what does justice look like in terms of restoring the pond?

- I think justice looks like a clean, vibrant, healthy pond that people in this community are enjoying.

- [Michelle] Hamblett says there's an acceptance of this kind of pollution in urban areas that would not exist in more affluent communities.

- If this pond was in East Greenwich or Barrington, you might see a different response to the pollution that's in it.

- [Michelle] Terry Gray says the work being done in the Mashapaug Pond Watershed, which flows into Narragansett Bay, is a case study with lasting ripple effects.

- As we learn and we see the benefits and we see how to do this effectively, my hope is that we'll apply those lessons to other parts of the state.

- The long-term goal, he says, is to restore the water so it can be fishable and swimmable.

When can people expect to go swimming in that pond?

To go fishing there?

- Too early to say.

Remember, it's taken over 100 years to really get to this point, and that's 100 years of history that we have to overcome in order to restore the water quality in this pond.

So it's gonna take a while.

- [Michelle] Suzannah Rutherford says being out on the water feels like a ghost town.

She's seen rotting docks submerged, a sign, she says, this was once a vibrant place.

- I'd love to be able to dive off a dock and swim across the pond (laughs) someday.

We enjoy just looking at it.

We enjoy the birds.

We enjoy watching the eagles catching fish, but it would be a beautiful thing to have people be able to swim here again.

- [Michelle] But it's unclear how long it will take to make that a reality.

- 100 years from now, I'd like the people to be telling the story about how this generation did this work and repaired this waterway so that others could enjoy it.

You know, there was a time where most people couldn't enjoy the bay, and we did a lot of work, and now most of the bay is enjoyable, and so if we can do that, then we can do this.

- Mashapaug Pond sits right behind our television studio, so it's no surprise the Rhode Island PBS Foundation and the Public's Radio will be one of the properties required to control storm water runoff under the state's new plan.

- And according to a city spokesman, Providence is also doing its part to help revitalize Mashapaug Pond.

It recently received more than $900,000 in federal funding, which will in part improve water quality, revitalize trails that connect the pond to nearby parks, and restore a boat launch.

Now to another type of pollution that can't be seen, but is loudly heard.

ATVs, wailing ambulance sirens.

The list of sounds we hear on a regular basis is seemingly endless.

As we first reported in March of 2023, noise pollution was declared a public health hazard in 1968, but experts say the problem has only gotten worse, and little has been done to address it.

Here in Providence, researchers at Brown University found the biggest contributor to noise in the capital city is transportation.

So how does the noise here compare to other cities in the region?

The answers in our Green Seeker series will likely surprise you - On the weekends, it legitimately sounds like I live next to a racetrack and it's not the interstate, it's the cars on Dean and Atwells.

- [Michelle] Frank Broome knew it would be noisy when he moved to Providence's Federal Hill Neighborhood.

(van swooshes) (upbeat music) But he says the sounds he hears from his apartment are louder than he imagined.

(upbeat music) - I really never expected this, but there are cars that have speakers on the outsides of their cars, and it's shocking how I'll hear, not just bass, but I can hear clear lyrics.

- [Michelle] Over on the northeast side of Providence.

(siren wails) Sam Howard is also frustrated.

(siren wails) - This is a lot of noise.

There's a siren going off right now.

We can hear vehicle noise happening late at night when folks are making their liquor runs.

We have a liquor store nearby.

People are chatting and yelling and playing music.

- [Michelle] He lives in the city Summit neighborhood, less than two blocks from Miriam Hospital.

But the siren sound that we're hearing right now, that's pretty common around here?

- That, I mean, that's all day, yeah.

- [Michelle] Howard says he feels discouraged by the constant barrage of noise.

- It's often loud that I don't really want to be outside, right?

I'd rather be inside and I think that causes harm to social fabric.

I'm not running into neighbors as much as I should be.

- [Michelle] Both Howard and Broome invited students from a Brown University research lab to measure the noise level for themselves.

Nina Lee has collected dozens of noise samples in Providence.

She sets up monitors in backyards and front porches around the city and leaves them there for a week.

- I would never be able to hear what you're saying, but I can see that, for example, at 8:00 PM, there was a high burst of sound at a specific frequency.

- [Michelle] Erica Walker is the founder of Brown University's Community Noise Lab and an assistant professor of epidemiology.

- Sound is basically anything that you can process through your auditory system, anything that you can hear.

But when we move from sound to noise, we go from things that we like to hear to things that we don't want to hear.

- Walker is interested in how noise affects a community's health.

Before she moved to Rhode Island, she spent years monitoring and studying disruptive noises in Boston.

How noisy is Rhode Island compared to other places you've been, like Boston specifically?

- Providence in particular is really loud.

It's on the lines of what I measured when I was in Boston.

- You're saying that Providence is as loud as Boston?

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Really?

- Yes.

- [Michelle] Walker says it's no surprise that the biggest contributor to noise in the city is transportation.

(truck swooshes) From bustling highways.

(cars swooshing) To rumbling trains.

(trains whooshes) Research shows the neighborhoods most affected by noise pollution in Providence and across the country are communities of color and low income residents.

(truck rumbles) Walker's students have scoured locations all over the capital city and the state.

Their findings are being shared with local and state agencies, findings like this noise map that Walker and her students created for Providence.

Their measurements found Upper South Providence and South Elmwood are the loudest neighborhoods.

(trucks rumbling) Walker says those areas average 69 decibels.

(siren wails) That's close to the sound of a hairdryer and louder than the city's limit for residential areas.

(car swooshes) (car horn honks) As for the quietest neighborhoods.

(car swooshes) That distinction goes to Blackstone and College Hill, which average 53 and 56 decibels, like the hum of a refrigerator.

(car swooshes) (car horn honks) While the sound of traffic may be expected in a city, Walker says it shouldn't be an issue that disrupts people's quality of life.

(cars swooshing and rumbling) - We have this sort of misconception about noise, that it's a first world problem, that it's a sacrifice that you make to live in a city, that it's a sign of progress.

(car rumbling) - [Michelle] Noise is more than just a nuisance.

Walker says it's also a public health issue and can trigger a person's fight or flight response.

- And that flight or fight response is preparing you for battle.

And can you imagine that if you're in a community where you're being prepared for battle every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, what that does to your health over the long term.

- The, I don't know the exact terminology for it, but the cars that sound, when they drive, it sounds like gunshots.

- [Michelle] Frank Broome says the excessive noise off of Dean and Atwells has taken a toll on his health.

He works from home and says it can be difficult to get things done.

- I've started developing tinnitus in my ears, like I hear ringing in my ears constantly.

At first, I didn't realize the noise was affecting me that much, but there's a strong correlation where, the noisier it is, the less I'm able to do my job or be productive in general.

(cars swooshing) - [Michelle] According to the Environmental Protection Agency, noise pollution affects millions of people.

Studies show it can lead to high blood pressure, hearing loss, and sleep disruption.

Brown University student, Chilsea Wang, has studied the noise levels outside of hospitals and clinics.

She wants to learn how all of that outside noise (car squeaks) affects patients inside.

(van rumbling) We followed along as Wang set up a noise monitor by Rhode Island Hospital.

(sirens wail) She wants to find ways to mitigate loud noise.

- Well, we can have softer waiting rooms, for example.

We can isolate the front desk work from the work that goes on in a hospital.

- We know the public health implications of noise pollution.

People who have PTSD, people who are just trying to enjoy peace and quiet, shouldn't have to deal with loud, altered mufflers.

- [Michelle] Nearly two years ago, the Providence City Council passed a resolution asking city administrators to look into solutions to deal with excessive noise, including noise barrier tax incentives and acoustic cameras.

- It's really about protecting public health.

We're ensuring that we're improving quality of life for everyone in the city, and that was the impetus.

- [Michelle] Councilman John Goncalves says he plans to introduce the idea of installing acoustic cameras in the city similar to what's been put up in Knoxville, Tennessee.

It would snap a picture of a vehicle when a sensor detects that noise levels are over the legal limit.

But he stresses that if cameras are installed, they would need to be rolled out properly.

(bus rumbling) - I don't think we'd be solving the problem in the most effective way if we just say, "Well, you know what?

The communities that are experiencing the most noise should have practically all of the acoustic cameras in the city."

I don't think that's fair and I don't think that's equitable.

We can't control everything, but if we do something, we can improve people's quality of life.

- It really does feel like this is the route that many people take (car horn honks) to get from, car horn's honking, right?

- [Michelle] It's something that Sam Howard thinks about.

He wants to grow his family and would like the city to find ways to lessen the impact of noise on everyone.

- Do we put up soundproofing barriers?

Do we change the surfaces to make the roads less noisy?

There are a lot of solutions, and especially if we're thinking about climate change, a lot of those, a lot of the things we would do for sustainability go hand in hand with reducing noise.

And so we can do both together.

It's just a matter of priorities.

- [Michelle] Over on Federal Hill, Frank Broome says noise is a priority for him and it may force him off the hill.

- It feels like a slow buildup of noise and it affects me and my ability, you know, my general anxiety levels.

- [Michelle] What would you say to people who hear this and say, "Oh, Frank, you knew you were moving to a big city.

You're right off the highway.

You know that's gonna be a noisy area.

If you're so annoyed by this, just move."

- Of course, well, even if, let's say, if and when I move, someone else is gonna move here and they're gonna have the same issues that I'm gonna be facing.

So even if I have the ability to move out of here, someone else is gonna be in the exact same situation that I am and it's not fair to them as well.

- And finally tonight, on this episode of "Weekly Insight," Michelle and WPRI 12's politics editor, Ted Nesi, discuss what's in and what's not in Rhode Island's new $14 billion state budget bill.

- Ted, welcome back.

Always good to see you.

So here we are, we are approaching the home stretch of the annual legislative session at the Rhode Island State House when the state budget bill is introduced.

- Yeah, it's like the white smoke at the Vatican.

It's how we know, as political reporters, that we're reaching the end of the session because they finally pop the budget bill and that sort of starts the sounding gun so that we know we're off to the races.

- I like that visual.

So the nearly $14 billion budget plan that was released by legislative leaders makes a host of changes to the one that governor Dan McKee proposed earlier this year.

For instance, there's no bond question to fund a proposed state archives building, no tax break for Citizens Bank, and there's a different plan for funding the reconstruction of the westbound side of the Washington Bridge.

As someone who's been covering the State House and the budget for many years, what do you make of these changes?

- Well, it's a huge document.

So you can focus on those changes.

There's all sorts of, there's a million things you could talk about, but at a high level, I think what surprised me, Michelle, was the size of the budget.

And that's because, just to remind people, Rhode Island state budget has grown by almost 50%, five zero, since the year before the pandemic.

Now, lawmakers have told us over and over, that's because of all the federal COVID aid.

It has to do with the pandemic.

As that money dries up, you're gonna see the budget shrink.

Well, that money is now drying up.

- Right.

- And the budget is not shrinking, it's up at about $14 billion.

So I think I've been surprised to see state spending staying at that level, even as we get further away from the pandemic.

- And Governor Dan McKee has praised many of the specifics in the budget bill, but he's also voiced some concern about the amount of money that lawmakers want to spend.

Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

- We're deciphering, quite frankly, the additional expenses that have been put in, the additional line items.

We're trying to get our arms around what's that doing potentially long term to the structural deficit.

Those numbers aren't completely clear yet.

- And Governor McKee is not the only one voicing that concern.

- Yeah, General Treasurer James Diossa actually put out a statement, somewhat quietly, only on social media, late on the Friday night when the budget bill came out, warning that the pension changes contained in the bill, lawmakers have added a lot, a number of policies to restore some benefits to retirees, saying that those could actually jeopardize the state's bond rating.

But then when reporters caught up with Diossa to sort of press him on that, see what he thought, he said, "Oh, but I support the budget, I support the pension changes."

But even though he said that, I think the fact that his office felt the need to give a little warning initially just shows how much additional spending went into this and how, at least for some folks watching, there is a concern about whether it's sustainable.

- Well, and lawmakers say, look, there's good reason to spend this additional money.

They point to their key priorities, healthcare, education, and as you said, those retiree benefits.

- Yeah, well, and each spending item, of course, has a case behind it, right?

You mentioned healthcare.

Providers say they need higher Medicaid rates in order to keep the healthcare system sustainable in Rhode Island.

School committees say they couldn't afford the less generous K12 funding formula aid that Governor McKee wanted to do.

And retirees, they say that they've been very squeezed by inflation, and they needed lawmakers to revisit some of those pension changes Gina Raimondo put in place in 2011.

And so legislators were able to fund all those commitments because there was a pretty big surplus left over from the last budget.

The problem is, this budget has no surplus built into it, which means next year's budget, they could find themselves with quite a gap to fill to keep funding all these priorities without a bunch of extra money to pay for it.

- And of course, you always have to factor in the unknown.

I think of the Washington Bridge.

Who could have foreseen that this time last year?

- Right, that's a half a billion dollar project, Michelle, that was not on anyone's radar screen a year ago and still wasn't included at all in Governor McKee's budget plan in January.

- Yeah.

Thanks so much, Ted.

I appreciate it.

- Good to be here.

- That's our broadcast this evening.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and X and you can visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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