While Providence is known as the City of Seven Hills, it’s important to recognize that it is also a City of Seven Rivers. Protecting those rivers and Narragansett Bay is tough in this era of drastically increasing storms and rainfall. These numbers tell the story and illustrate (innumerate?) the accompanying story about stormwater management. They alsotell us what an amazing infrastructure our modern sewage system is!
Stormwater and Sewer Infrastructure/City of Providence
327 miles of sewer and stormwater pipes
13,000 stormwater catch basins
4,0000 stormwater inlets
14,473 street manholes
176 stormwater outfalls into Providence waterways
3 dams
Fields Point Wastewater Treatment Facility/Narragansett Bay Commission
46 million gallons/day- Average daily dry weather flows treated
65 million gallons/day -Average wet weather flows capacity
80 miles of interceptor pipes
2 underground tunnels for combined sewage and stormwater storage
Unique Water Features
7 rivers in Providence—Seekonk, Moshassuck, West, Woonasquatucket, Providence, and Pocasset
3 Fish Ladders on the Woonasquatucket River allowing 40,000 menhaden safe passage upstream (thanks to the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council)
1,000,000 people/year who watch Waterfire events/year at Waterplace Park Basin on the restored Woonasquatucket River and along the Upper Providence River
1-# of whales who have swum in the Providence River: Willy the Whale visited in the summer of 1962
1 hurricane barriers: Fox Point Hurricane Barrier built 1960-66 because of the flooding from the 1954 Hurricane Carol
114 acres; size of Mashapaug Pond, largest freshwater body in Providence
Bob McMahon has been a Providence resident since 1978. While an officer in the US Navy, he participated in the recovery of the Apollo 11 astronauts in the Pacific Ocean in 1969. He has a city planning background and worked in the Providence Parks Department for 30 years, first as Deputy Superintendent under Nancy Derrig and later as Superintendent. Married to Pam Kennedy, they have two adult sons, James and Robert. He is a volunteer for the San Miguel School and St. Pius V Church in Providence. Daily devotee of the New York Times word games: Wordle (3.0 average guesses) and Spelling Bee (859 straight days Genius level).
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