By Alex Kuffner
Providence Journal
PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Under gray skies on a recent afternoon, Andrew Silvia stood on the Exchange Street Bridge near City Hall and pointed below to clumps of soapy residue floating on the surface of the Blackstone River.
“It might be coming from an outfall,” Silvia, the city’s chief of project development, said as he looked down river. “I’d love to know.”
Silvia doesn’t know because Pawtucket has never done a comprehensive assessment of its system of 45 stormwater outfalls that channel runoff carrying contaminants and debris from streets and sidewalks to the city’s rivers — and ultimately into Narragansett Bay.
But now with the help of an $83,000 federal grant that will be announced on Monday, Silvia, who is a civil engineer, will oversee the development of a stormwater master plan that will bring together property ownership data and computerized mapping. It also will include inspections of catch basins and other parts of the citywide drainage system that, in places, date to the 1800s.
“The project is not going to get us all the way to understanding, but it is a vital step,” Silvia said.
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