A group of Rhode Island lawmakers, including Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, Senator Victoria Gu, and Representative Terri Cortvriend, have called on the state to reform the Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) to make improvements to the way the council is run.
Lawmakers say the current structure of the CRMC, which is made up of elected officials, is no longer tenable and that the council is in need of being “modernised”.
“The CRMC is tasked with managing much more complex issues than it did 50 years ago, like offshore wind, aquaculture, climate change and shoreline access,” said Senate bill sponsor Senator Victoria Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown). “An all-volunteer council just isn’t scalable. Rhode Islanders care a lot about shoreline access, marine life and protecting our environment, and they deserve a professionalized agency to tackle these issues.”
“Protecting the vibrance, resilience and accessibility of our coastline is critical to the economy and the quality of life that we deserve in the Ocean State,” said House bill sponsor Representative Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown). “We need a CRMC that is led by qualified individuals with experience in coastal development issues, who will be held accountable in the same ways as other public entities. Adoption of our bill would be a commitment to removing the politics from coastal development for the sake of a safe, sustainable future.”
Attorney General Peter Neronha is spearheading the effort that would change the structure of the CRMC by creating a Department of Coastal Resources.
“If we as a state are serious about protecting our environment and coastline, then we need — and we deserve — a dedicated agency with the organization and expertise to handle complex permitting and enforcement issues,” said Attorney General Neronha. “This bill is about modernizing what has become an amateurish, inconsistent approach to protecting one of our state’s most valuable resources. We cannot afford to continue placing crucial environmental decisions in the hands of political appointees who lack the expertise and often get it wrong.”
The CRMC would then be similar in structure to the current Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the director of the new department would be a cabinet-level position.
“My Office’s work has intersected with CRMC on many occasions, including when we successfully intervened, on behalf of the public, in the legal dispute over the proposed expansion of a marina in Block Island’s Great Salt Pond,” continued Attorney General Neronha. “At that time, Champlin’s Marina and the CRMC attempted to circumvent the public regulatory process. Now, we are waiting to hear CRMC’s decision about an egregious violation of shoreline rules by Quidnessett Country Club after the club illegally built a seawall without permits and is now seeking a retroactive change to the rules to allow it to remain. While CRMC staff has issued enforcement actions against the Country Club, the Council, for some reason, is entertaining the petition for the rule change and putting it out to public comment. The fact remains that Quidnessett probably would never have built the illegal sea wall if they didn’t believe a politicized CRMC would allow them to get away with it. We need fundamental change at CRMC now, and I am grateful to our sponsors and leaders in the House and Senate for their consideration of this legislation.”
Topher Hamblett, Executive Director of Save The Bay, is applauding the effort. He believes that the “Council structure needs to be eliminated.”
