Anticipated good news and bad news
By Will Collette
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| Photo by Will Collette |
The project partners include the Town of Charlestown, URI
Onsite Wastewater Resource Center, Salt Ponds Coalition and Save the Bay.
Funding for this work has been provided through the EPA’s SNEP
Program.
The work over the past year has included septic system upgrades, native coastal planting, and water quality monitoring.
The elephant in the room is what impact the Trump-Musk-DOGE impoundments,
funding and staff cuts, and program closures will have on this work. Plus, there
is the added fear of “claw-backs” where the Trump program not only turns off
future funding – as they appear to have done with SNEP￬ – but also take action
to take back money that has already been paid.
The Rhode Island Health Department found out last week that the Trump-Musk team intend to take back $31 million in grants already paid to the state.
The Health Department e-mailed GoLocal to explain:
"We were notified by CDC that four grants we had received to support our capacity in various areas of the Department post-COVID-19 have been terminated. While the work funded by these grants goes beyond responding to COVID-19, CDC’s cause for terminating these grants was the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
I hate to piss on the Ninigret Pond taskforce’s parade, but
I see no reason to believe their work won’t get the same shabby treatment.
Here are the meeting details:
When: Wednesday, April 2, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kettle Pond Visitor Center, 50 Bend Road, Charlestown
Register: Please use the linked form to register for
this upcoming listening session
