Wastewater Plant Failure Leads to Shellfishing Closure in Mt. Hope Bay, Kickemuit River

Shellfishing in areas of Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River will be closed to shellfishing beginning at sunrise Thursday after 600,000 gallons of untreated effluent was discharged at the Fall River Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility.

The state Department of Environmental Management announced the closure on Wednesday afternoon and said in a release that officials from the wastewater plant contacted the DEM Wednesday morning to report a disinfection system failure.

Specifically, the closure will affect the following waters: All waters of the Kickemuit River and Mt. Hope Bay south of a line from the range marker at the eastern extension of Patterson Avenue in the Laurel Park section of Warren to the flagpole on the opposite eastern shore on the property of #61 Asylum Road in Touisset, and north and west of a line from Bristol Point to the Buoy “R4” channel marker located on the southerly side of the Mount Hope Bay channel, that intersects with a line from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management range marker located approximately midway on Touisset Point to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management range marker located on Common Fence Point in Portsmouth.

The DEM said it plans to reopen the areas on Thursday March 5.

The discharge happened between 8:50 and 9:50 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The DEM runs a 24-hour shellfishing hotline at 222-2900.