RI's sewage overflow
project complete

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - After 30 years of planning and $360 million the first step to better sewage overflow and cleaner waterways is complete.

Some describe the combined sewer overflow project as a fairy tale until today. Eyewitness news was there seven yrs ago for the groundbreaking, and now the completion of a pump station and a tunnel 16,000 feet long, 300 feet below the ground.

"This is the greatest public works project in Rhode Island, and more importantly it's the greatest one that'll you will never see," says Sen. Jack Reed.

This is how it works, when it rains gates controlled by the Narragansett Bay Commission will open forcing run off underground into the tunnel and away from city rivers and base.

The combined sewer project is dedicated to Governor Jay Joseph Garrett. He began looking into the problem of pollution into Narragansett Bay thirty years ago.