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June 27, 2006 - For more than a year, Senator Richard T. Moore (D-Uxbridge) has been fighting to keep Massachusetts from reneging on an agreement with the Corps of Engineers to complete an important environmental analysis of the Blackstone River. Federal matching funds, as well, as a much need study to clean up key sections of the river, are at stake, according to the veteran lawmaker who is urging his colleagues to override a veto of the state match.
In a recent veto message, Governor Mitt Romney axed a provision in a supplemental budget for $155,000 to be expended and $60,325 provided as in-kind services toward the completion of an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of an ongoing environmental investigation of the Blackstone River including special focus on Fisherville Pond in Grafton and Rice City Pond in Uxbridge. He noted that his agency did not request these funds.
In 1999, the Corps of Engineers and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) signed the cost sharing agreement for the Blackstone River investigation. The total cost of the project is $2,040,300 and is cost-shared 50/50. To date, EOEA has contributed $500,000 cash and $89,500 in in-kind services toward their $1,020,150 total share of study costs. State environmental officials want to accept the preliminary study capping their contribution at funds paid to date rather than pay for a completed product, according to Senator Moore.
However, Corps officials informed Moore last year that, although the original target of the study was Fisherville Pond, full funding of the state match would allow them to include Rice City Pond in their analysis.
Rice City Pond, just north of Harford Avenue in Uxbridge is an important feature of the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park which was originally established through Moore’s efforts as a freshman state representative. In 1978, Moore successfully teamed with the area’s senator, Sen. James A. Kelly, Jr. (D-Oxford), who chaired the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, to appropriate over $1 million to purchase about 1100 acres in Northbridge and Uxbridge to establish the park.
Based on the agreement, EOEA would need to provide the Corps an additional $310,000 in cash and $120,650 in in-kind service credits to fully fund the project. In order to make the state share less onerous, Corps of Engineers officials told Senator Moore that the state could split the necessary funding equally over two federal fiscal years. Therefore, Moore said that he will seek another $155,000 appropriation plus $60,325 in a subsequent spending plan since the amount that is sought in the veto override is one-half of the remaining funds needed to complete the agreement with the Corps.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society has supported the study by the Corps as part of their efforts with the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor to make the Blackstone swimmable and fishable by 2015.
To learn more about Senator Moore’s work in the Massachusetts Senate, log onto his web site at www.senatormoore.com
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