From a Save The Bay press release:
Today marks two years since the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) issued a cease and desist order requiring Quidnessett Country Club to remove the illegal rock wall they erected without permission on Narragansett Bay. Since the issuance of that order, CRMC’s politically-appointed Council has allowed Quidnessett to retain the unlawful wall, allowing numerous extensions, at the cost of Rhode Islanders’ access to the natural shoreline and local habitats like the beach and salt marsh near the shores of the country club.
“CRMC’s Council is complicit in maintaining this illegal rock wall on the shores of Narragansett Bay,” said Jed Thorp, Director of Advocacy for Save The Bay. “First, the Council entertained a water-type change that would have allowed the Club to keep a massive structure built on the coast without any permits. Then, when that avenue failed, the Council gave the Club multiple extensions to deliver restoration plans that would properly restore the ecosystem to its previous state. Now, a recent appeal filed by Quidnessett in Superior Court will, in effect, grant the Club more time to keep the unpermitted and illegal rock wall. The wall has stood for over two years, constructed by the Club in violation of state and federal law, and to date, with no consequences. It’s time for the Council to stop protecting this private golf course and treat it like any other willful violator of the law–order the Club to rectify the violation, remove the wall, and fully restore the shoreline.”
Save The Bay staff recently visited the illegally erected rock wall site on Narragansett Bay. While there, staff observed local wildlife such as horseshoe crabs and birds that depend on the local habitat for survival, a habitat that has been partially buried under a 20-foot-tall pile of rocks on the shoreline. CRMC’s staff stated in its evaluation of the violation that the massive stone structure could also affect the nesting of the eastern diamondback terrapin, an endangered species. Additionally, the wall deflects wave energy along the wall to neighboring properties–in this case, the salt marsh and sandy beaches–which will increase erosion in those habitats.
Save The Bay continues to advocate for comprehensive CRMC reform, including removing the Council, leaving coastal decision-making to CRMC’s expert staff, and putting a full-time staff attorney in place to ensure that law and science, not politics, guide regulatory decisions.
“We need a coastal agency that will defend our local habitats and natural resources, not violators of the law,” Thorp said. “By maintaining this illegal wall in place, the Council is sending the wrong message to coastal developers that you can build without permits or impunity.”
See also:
A 2022 Rhode Island Supreme Court decision against the Champlin Marina expansion put a period at the end of a long sentence begun in 2017 when then-Governor Gina Raimondo decided to stack the CRMC with insiders and bad actors who favored fossil fuel companies over climate justice communities and the interests of wealthy resort owners over ecological devastation.
The CRMC is a state regulatory agency tasked with maintaining and regulating the use of Rhode Island’s 400+ miles of coastline. Agencies like the CRMC, noted Attorney General Peter Neronha in a statement, “…have been given extraordinary powers by the General Assembly to make decisions that directly and significantly impact the people of this state. Under long-settled Rhode Island law, this grant of power is conditioned on several things, including a requirement that their quasi-judicial decision-making process be transparent and provide for public input, and that every agency decision be supported by specific findings of fact and conclusions of law that objectively justify the decision.”
The 2022 Rhode Island Supreme Court decision found that the CRMC illegally and behind closed doors settled with Champlin Marina, allowing the resort to expand into the Great Salt Marsh on Block Island. This was an attempt to circumvent a public regulatory process conducted by the CRMC that in 2011 denied Champlin’s expansion, a decision that was “well supported by the evidence,” according to the Court.
But this out-of-control, backroom-dealing CRMC, headed by Raimondo appointee Jennifer Cervenka, was only doing what it was created to do: serve the interests of the wealthy and connected.
This was presaged in July 2017 when Governor Raimondo made the unusual—even unprecedented—decision to radically alter the makeup of the CRMC six months earlier than she needed to. As Tim Faulkner reported in ECO RI, quoting former CRMC Chair Anne Livingston, “changes on the council are typically announced closer to January, when the General Assembly begins its session.”
But little attention was paid to the changeover, and a complacent and complicit State Senate rubber-stamped the changes without providing constitutionally mandated “advice and consent.”
Tony Affigne is a professor of political science at Providence College and was a CRMC member from 2011 to 2017. Governor Raimondo replaced Affigne in July, along with Chair Livingston and Councilmember Paul Beaudette.
The Governor’s action, said Affigne, left the CRMC “without any members with strong environmental commitments, and without its only member (me) who knows and understands the South Side community. I have many family members who still live in the area; previously worked as an adult education teacher and community organizer in both South Providence and Washington Park; and teach courses at Providence College (and previously at Brown) on city politics and environmental policy.”
Without CRMC members that cared about South Providence communities facing environmental injustice, or members that cared about the environment and climate change at all, National Grid was free to present their case to build a new liquefaction facility in the Port of Providence to a quasi-judicicial state agency that was now very friendly to fossil fuel interests and indifferent to the health and safety of the low-income BIPOC communities in the surrounding areas. [See here for detailed exposition and timeline about the CRMC membership changes.]
Starting as early as February 2017, the CRMC was considering National Grid’s proposed liquefaction facility. However, certain CRMC committeemembers raised objections to the plan in May, and the discussion was put on hold. In July, Governor Raimondo changed the CRMC membership, and by December 2017, the liquefaction facility was approved to National Grid’s satisfaction.
Never mind that it was later revealed that the CRMC had withheld information from the public about the nature and scope of the approval process. Never mind that community members called for the resignation of CRMC Chair Cervenka after she attempted to have a mother arrested during public testimony because she called the CRMC committeemembers cowards. Never mind that Cervenka had apparent conflicts of interest, given that she used to work for the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and her former boss was one of the few people to testify in favor of National Grid’s project. And to top it all off, when Governor Raimondo finally answered a question from a journalist about these issues, she played innocent.
Ignoring the obvious problems with the CRMC, the State Senate reapproved Cervenka and other CRMC members twice, despite residents who live near the Port twice presenting evidence that she was unfit and possibly corrupt. [See here, here, and here.] Though the concerns of residents who live around the Port of Providence were dismissed, several people testified about the CRMC’s sketchy process in approving the Champlin Marina expansion on Block Island.
Suddenly, things changed.
When the CRMC screwed over the mostly low-income BIPOC community around the Port of Providence, few people noticed or cared. When the CRMC attempted to screw over the mostly white, upper-middle-class, and wealthy residents of Block Island, it became front-page news, and the Attorney General became involved.
Less than two weeks after the State Senate confirmed Cervenka’s second reappointment as chair of the CRMC, the Office of the Attorney General intervened in the Champlin Marina expansion case.
The case was quickly resolved, delivering justice to the residents of Block Island, and Chair Cervenka stepped down.
But there was no justice for the residents of Providence, only disrespect, bullying, lies, continued environmental racism, and worsening health outcomes.
