R.I. Must Encourage Responsible Housing Development That Protects Drinking Water Supplies

Building consensus for responsible development

By Scott Millar / Land use planner

Here are the Irish "Principles of Sustainable Development"

Rhode Island needs more housing, and I support that goal. But how we get there matters. Growth has limits, and development must respect constraints, especially when it comes to preserving clean drinking water.

The failure to adequately plan a long-term, safe, steady supply of drinking water for new housing can have catastrophic impacts. Watersheds for public surface water and groundwater drinking water supplies are not appropriate for high-density development. Once drinking water is contaminated or overdrawn, it can’t easily be restored and must be protected for both current and future generations.

For these reasons, I strongly support legislation to amend the Rhode Island Low and Moderate Income (LMI) Housing Act. This legislation would eliminate the existing state-mandated housing densities in lands that are used for drinking water supplies. 

Moreover, the current law only requires developers to cite that public water or sewer systems are available. The legislation adds language that the capacity of public water or sewer be documented to support the proposed increase in residential density before a development proposal can be approved. 

The intent of the amendments is to ensure that housing densities for LMI do not exceed the availability of onsite drinking water supplies; do not introduce pollution that would make drinking water unsuitable for use; and stay within the limits of any public water or sewer system.

The state-mandated housing densities are excessive in areas not served by public water or sewer. As an example, the LMI law allows a density bonus up to eight housing units per acre. That would be an increase from one house in a 2-acre zone to 17 houses, or a 1,600% increase in density. If a development had 25 2-acre lots, the density skyrockets from 25 houses to 425. That doesn’t include the potential for each lot to also have an accessory dwelling unit or for the units to be duplexes. There’s no guarantee that on-site wells would have an adequate capacity to provide drinking water. The high density has a high potential to pollute surface and groundwater. The state has regulations to minimize water quality impacts, but in my experience as a former Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management administrator, those regulations don’t work effectively with high density development. The state also has no authority to regulate density to protect drinking water supplies.

The Scituate Reservoir Watershed Management Plan was a comprehensive study to determine what needed to be done to protect the surface and groundwater quality within the Scituate Reservoir watershed. The recommendations were germane to protect drinking water quality throughout Rhode Island. The plan recommended that the watershed towns prohibit high-density residential development, defined as a quarter acre or less per dwelling unit. High density was determined to be a high risk to pollute water quality. The bonus densities in the LMI act all result in high-density housing or a high risk to pollute water quality.

Local governments must be able to establish appropriate density and locations for housing that protect both the quantity and quality of drinking water. Drinking water is a limited resource that is essential to support life and prosperity. Rhode Island can’t risk polluting our drinking water and must find other locations for LMI housing. There is no backup drinking water supply.

These are common-sense amendments that are needed to avoid the unintended consequences of creating a future crisis that could have LMI housing and adjacent homes or businesses without the necessary quantity or quality of drinking water. Moreover, it’s been a long-standing state policy to protect all drinking water supplies to support existing and future needs for growth and economic development. The state can and must encourage responsible housing development that avoids future problems that can be very expensive to solve.

I commend Rep. Megan Cotter and Sen. Victoria Gu for their leadership in introducing this important legislation. I urge everyone to support their respective bills, H7446 and S2691, to preserve and protect our drinking water for existing and future generations.

Scott Millar is an environmental scientist and planner with more than 45 years of experience in assisting municipalities on land use. In addition to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, he worked at the Division of Statewide Planning and was a senior policy analyst at Grow Smart Rhode Island.