Clean Sweep – Fresh Start

cleanthebays on October 27, 2022

CURRENT PROJECT

Clean Sweep – Fresh Start

Clean Sweep – Fresh Start is a pilot project designed to provide clean shores of Narragansett Bay while partnering our current staff with recent parolees. This program will provide temporary employment, training, and better re-entry opportunities for local parolees and underserved members of the community while simultaneously working to make Narragansett Bay one of the cleanest shorelines in America.

A successful pilot program could create very positive change in the trajectory of Narragansett Bay for the next generation and a shoreline that could be easily and cost-effectively perpetually cleaned each year. It would also generate life-changing results for local re-entry individuals by providing them with more robust opportunities and momentum towards a successful re-entry transition.

Our goals are:

  • Remove 400 tons of debris from the Shoreline of Narragansett Bay.
  • Provide data and success stories from the re-entry team members to educate others about the importance of successful re-entry programs.
  • Provide training certificates in labor, landscape, jobsite safety, and seamanship for re-entry team members.
  • Provide a solid start and great recommendations for re-entry team members.
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Camel Removal

cleanthebays on October 27, 2022

PAST PROJECTS

Camel Removal

Sometime when the Navy had a far bigger presence in RI than it does now, it built hundreds of heavy oblong iron-bound wooden boxes called ‘camels’. They float mostly submerged, with only the heavy steel lifting rings showing above the surface of the water. No one seems to know precisely what they were for: some think they were floats for the anti-submarine net; others say they were used as fenders between rafted-up ships.

But whatever their purpose, they were very well constructed. The timbers are 12X12” yellow pine, well impregnated with creosote, and held together by heavy steel strapping joined by ¾” steel rods most places, and 2” thick rods at the corners and amidships.

Over the years, Clean the Bay has removed over 100 of these camels from the shores of Narragansett Bay. Some were refloated and towed to the Navy base for disposal; others had to be cut up small and placed in a dumpster.

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Barge Cleanup

cleanthebays on October 27, 2022

PAST PROJECTS

Barge Cleanup

A big project in 2016 was the removal of two sunken barges on the Green Jacket Shoal, next to Bold Point Park in East Providence. They had been cut down to the waterline by late 2015; what remained had to be removed by getting in the water with wetsuits and heavy waders, and worked mostly by feel. An underwater hydraulic chainsaw, rented from Specialty Diving Services in Quonset, was the key component in cutting the heavy waterlogged timbers into pieces that could be brought aboard the boat with a small crane. They were then cut into pieces small enough to carry and stacked for transport.

Specially challenging were the numerous metal parts, which the crew attacked on extra-low tide days with a gas-powered abrasive wheel cutter and acetylene torches. After the crew had reached all they could without drowning, a diver was brought to saw up the rest.

Our partners for this project were the RI DEM, Lighthouse Marina, Foley Dumpster, and the RI Resource Recovery Center, who were good enough to give Clean Bays a tipping fee waiver to save on disposal costs. Thanks, RIRRC!

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Shoreline Cleanup

cleanthebays on October 27, 2022

PAST PROJECTS

Shoreline Cleanup

During the summer of 2017, Clean the Bay removed close to 71 tons of heavy debris from the shores of East Providence and the Seekonk River. Cleanup of the 14-mile project area was done in partnership with NOAA, Lighthouse Marina in Barrington, Foley Dumpster of East Providence, and the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation. One captain and two crew—one full-time, one part-time—spent eight months chainsawing timbers, pilings and heavy planks into pieces that could be carried aboard the workboat by hand, and later unloaded by hand into a 30-yard dumpster. By the end of the summer, 25 dumpsters had been filled, several dozen saw chains worn out, and five small wrecked boats removed. Nearly a dozen washed-up sections of floating dock were disposed of as well.

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