Senate OKs Sosnowski legislation to create Rhode Island Lake Management Program
STATE HOUSE — The Senate today passed legislation introduced by Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski (D-Dist. 37, South Kingstown) that would create the Rhode Island Lake Management Program.
The bill (2024-S 2153A) would create a restricted receipt account to aid with lake and pond management issues relating to the control of invasive aquatic plants.
“Local wetlands are being threatened by invasive aquatic weeds,” said Senator Sosnowski. “This bill would be a first step to start a program at the Department of Environmental Management. The situation is becoming worse with warming temperatures, and it’s creating biological imbalance in these freshwater bodies. We have to be proactive to protect our lakes, which provide us with recreation, flood mitigation and an important habitat to plants and animals.”
Conditions in many Rhode Island lakes, ponds and tributaries are threatened or degraded by the growth of aquatic invasive plants, harmful algal blooms, nutrient enrichment and other water pollution problems. Restoring conditions in the state’s freshwater resources is essential to sustaining the valuable ecosystem services they provide.
The measure now moves to the House, where similar legislation (2024-H 8093) has been introduced by House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale (R-Dist. 40, Foster, Glocester, Coventry).
At least three people are dead after severe storms hit the South. Tennessee was slammed with at least four tornadoes on Wednesday, and two deaths were reported, one by a large tornado and one by a falling tree. One person was killed by damaging winds in North Carolina when a tree fell on a car near Charlotte. Tornadoes were also reported in Georgia and Alabama. 
