SNAPSHOT OF UPPER NARRAGANSETT BAY
The Narragansett Bay Commission’s (NBC) mission is to protect and enhance water quality in Narragansett Bay by providing safe, cost-effective, and reliable wastewater treatment services.
A critical aspect of our mission involves understanding the water quality in the Bay and watershed to ensure that regulations and infrastructure investments remain anchored in sound science. To this end, since the early 2000s the NBC has maintained an extensive receiving water monitoring program, measuring water quality parameters throughout the watershed, sampling for bacteria and nutrients, and making these data publicly available. Please explore this website for data and details.
The NBC’s Walker Point sondes were deployed for the 2026 season on May 7, 2026. The Bullock Reach sondes were deployed on May 28, 2026.
Please note: Fixed-site data are made available in near real-time direct from field-deployed instruments. They have not undergone quality control review.
Water Quality Initiatives
Fixed-Site Data
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Water Quality Summaries
Research Vessel
First Boat Trip of the Year: Chasing nutrients on the water
After months of waiting and prepping, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of gliding over the water as the world wakes up around you. Our mission this trip? To gather […]
Fixed-Site Network
November 3 – 9, 2025
Phillipsdale Landing Sondes were retrieved for the end of the season on the morning of November 4th. Overall, the water quality at Phillipsdale Landing was good this week. There was […]
Water Column Profiles
October 15, 2025
Water column profiles were conducted using a Seabird Electronics profiler at five locations in the Providence River and one location in the Seekonk River on October 15, 2025. In the […]
Water Clarity
May 19, 2026
Water clarity was measured at seven locations in the Providence River and Seekonk River estuaries on May 19, 2026. In the five days prior to the survey, 0.11 inches of […]
Surface Mapping
May 20, 2026
Surface chlorophyll data were collected on May 20, 2026, while the R/V Data Stream was underway collecting bacteria samples in the Providence and Seekonk River Estuaries. The average chlorophyll concentrations […]
Nutrients Sampling
March 18, 2026
Nutrient samples were collected from seven river stations and seven bay stations on March 18th. In the five days prior to sampling, 1.75” of precipitation were recorded at T.F. Green. […]
Bay Bacteria Sampling
April 23, 2026
On April 23rd, 2026, twenty stations were sampled for fecal coliform bacteria in the Providence and Seekonk Rivers; four of these stations were also sampled for enterococci bacteria. In the […]
Phytoplankton Sampling
April 29, 2026
Phytoplankton samples were collected on April 29, 2026 at Bullock Reach and analyzed in the laboratory shortly after collection. On this day, the water temperature was 10.70 °C, the salinity […]
Benthic Video
September 25 – October 1, 2022
The boat crew conducted benthic video surveys along the Bullock Reach, Edgewood, and Sabin transects on September 29, 2022. Scale lasers were used in the footage at Bullock Reach and […]