Historic Sabin Point Park Beach in East Providence to Reopen After Nearly a Century

Historic Sabin Point Park Beach in East Providence to Reopen After Nearly a Century

The City of East Providence announced this week that after being closed for nearly a century, the Sabin Point Park Beach will reopen for swimming in the next five to ten years — with the help of funding from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office. 

City engineer Erik Skadberg joined GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle on GoLocal LIVE to talk about the logistics of reopening the first and only beach in the Upper Narragansett Bay in generations. 

The City of East Providence is one of 16 entities to share the largest amount of the total $4.1 million in funds from a settlement with Volkswagen for violating Rhode Island state law prohibiting the sale and leasing of diesel vehicles equipped with illegal and undisclosed emissions control software — and received $850,000 for the remediations efforts for Sabin Point. 

In 2012, the City, in partnership with Save The Bay, began identifying areas and opportunities for stormwater filtration within the Sabin Point Park watershed area.  Federal, state and local funding was received from New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, the Bay and Watershed Restoration Fund, and R.I. Department of Environmental Management state bonds. 

To date, these funds enabled the City to create a Master Plan for engineering and begin some infrastructure improvements, getting the project to the point of construction implementation now with the infusion of the VW grant money.

The ultimate goal of the Sabin Point project is to install a sand-based filtration system that will reduce pollutants from stormwater runoff, which happens during both rain and snow weather events. With diligent monitoring and regular testing of water quality for proper levels of bacteria, the beach can be reopened in the future to swimming. Currently, the beach is used for boating and land recreation.