Town fishes for funds for dam repairs

Representative John Carnevale (D-Providence, Johnston) and Mayor Joseph Polisena testified at the State House yesterday on a piece of legislation that could save the town $1.4 million or more to repair old and damaged dams.

The bill, H-5357, which Carnevale introduced, would put 20 percent of revenues from table games at Twin River Casino into a restricted receipt account specifically for municipally-owned dams.

“These are smaller towns. A million [dollars] or more is going to crush their budgets,” Carnevale said. “We know who’s going to pay for this – the taxpayers.”

The issue of dam repair has been an ongoing conversation between the town and the state Department of Environmental Management. DEM began a study in 2011 to categorize dams based on potential hazard, giving them a classification of low, significant or high risk. High-risk dams, for example, would be those that could result in loss of life or extreme economic loss if the dam were to fail. DEM also designates a secondary category, where applicable, for dams that they feel are unsafe.

While DEM’s study is still underway, they have classified 26 dams as unsafe in Rhode Island to date, noting that there is a reasonable risk of failure in these instances. Cities and towns own nine of those dams, with DEM putting pressure on those municipalities to make improvements and repairs.

That’s a cost that Polisena says the town can’t afford. There are four high hazard dams in Johnston, and he estimates it could cost as much as $1 million each to repair them.

“With funds being ever so scarce, it’s very difficult,” he said.

The Johnston dams on DEM’s list for repairs are at the Almy Reservoir, Upper Simmonsville, Lower Simmonsville and Oak Swamp. Lincoln, North Providence and South Kingstown also have high hazard dams in their jurisdictions.

Speaking directly to the Finance Committee, Polisena says the legislation could benefit additional municipalities as DEM finalizes their list.

“You may not have a high hazard dam in your district today, but you may someday in the future,” he said.

After debating the issue for nearly three years with DEM, with the department sending over notices of violation and threatening fines, Johnston has signed an agreement that they will repair their four dams within six years.

The caveat, however, is that the agreement states that the town need only spend $1.4 million total. Once that cap is reached, the town’s obligation is fulfilled, even if that means only one of the dams is addressed. The agreement has another exception written into it, that the town reserves the right to drain bodies of water. That isn’t feasible for all dams, though, as some, such as Oak Swamp, are used for recreation.

“Some of these dams may be here another 100 years and be fine; this is just another unfunded mandate in my opinion,” Polisena said, though he thanked DEM Director Janet Coit for working with the town and ensuring that “cooler heads prevail.”

While that reduces risk for the town, the mayor is still hopeful that Carnevale’s bill will provide a funding source.

The town looked into federal funds, but nothing was available. Clean Water Finance reached out to see if they could help, but with the costs of repairs so high the loans would be unreasonable for cities and towns at this time.

Polisena added that a referendum would not likely pass because of how few people would feel the effects of failed dams.

“People that don’t live near a dam are not going to vote for something that could increase their taxes,” he said.

In presenting his bill to the House Finance Committee yesterday, Carnevale pointed to a report done one year ago that estimates that bringing table games to Twin River, which is slated to happen in early July, will result in approximately $25 million per year in additional revenues for at least two years. From those monies, Carnevale would like to see 20 percent go into this restricted fund, used only for municipal dam repair and maintenance.

“We can show the taxpayers where the windfall profit is going,” he said.

The bill also has a sunset clause written into it, so that the funds would only go into an account for three years. In 2016, once increased revenues level off, no new gambling monies would go into the restricted fund.

The bill was held for further study, and Carnevale said he plans to bring the issue up with House leadership to garner support.