Background

The Town of North Kingstown wishes to improve groundwater and surface water in the Sawmill Pond / Sandhill Brook watershed.  The general area of the Sawmill Pond / Sandhill Brook watershed is from the Wickford Junction shopping plaza on Ten Rod Road to the Sawmill Pond.  The watershed encompasses areas along and off of Old Baptist Road, School Street, and Stony Lane in addition to the West Davisville Industrial Park and the Davisville neighborhood area.  Sandhill Brook and the Sawmill Pond are overdeveloped and stressed with a number of water quality concerns resulting from homes on small lots with older septic systems, untreated stormwater that infiltrates into the ground or runs off directly into the pond with no removal of sediments or pollutants, and a causeway across the pond that has eroded.  The Sawmill Pond itself has significant sediment deposits and the dam is in disrepair. 

The Town plans to take a comprehensive and systematic approach to mitigating the adverse impacts on the groundwater and surface water in the watershed, through the development and implementation of a watershed plan, which is financed through funds received by the state for environmental damages to Calf Pasture Point and Allen Harbor Landfill in North Kingstown.

On February 23, 2009 the Town Council authorized Town Manager Michael Embury to enter into a contract with the Horsley Witten Group with offices in Providence and Sandwich, MA for Phase One of the project.  Phase One will consist of data collection, public outreach, neighborhood pollutant assessment, stormwater retrofit inventories, a stream corridor and Sawmill Pond assessment, the selection of preferred alternatives for stormwater retrofit and stream restoration and a final watershed assessment report. 

Several tasks to be completed during the development of the watershed plan will involve field work in the watershed particularly during the months of May through August and property owners will be notified in advance of this work to anticipate field crews in their neighborhoods. 

In addition to this website, established for residents to follow the progress of the project online, the Town and the consultant group have conducted several public meetings to solicit public input and to inform the public and the watershed residents regarding the progress of the project.