(a)  There is hereby established a restricted receipt account within the Department of Environmental Management to be called the Bays, Rivers and Watersheds Fund;

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 46-31.1-3

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Bays: means the estuaries including Narragansett Bay, Mount Hope Bay, Greenwich Bay, Little Narragansett Bay, the coastal ponds, the Sakonnet River, and Rhode Island territorial waters that extend seaward three geographical miles from the shoreline including the area around Block Island. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-31.1-2
  • Coordination: means to harmonize in a common action or effort and/or to function in a complementary manner. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-31.1-2
  • Watershed: means a land area which because of its topography, soil type, and drainage patterns acts as a collector of raw waters which regorge or replenish rivers and existing or planned public water supplies. See Rhode Island General Laws 46-31.1-2

(b)  The fund shall consist of any funds which the state may from time to time appropriate, as well as money received as gifts, grants, bequests, donations or other funds from any public or private sources, as well as all fees collected pursuant to § 46-23-1(f)(2) for the leasing of submerged lands for transatlantic cables, and all fees collected pursuant to chapter 12.11 of this title for the disposal of septage;

(c)  All funds, monies, and fees collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the Bays, Rivers and Watersheds Fund, and shall be utilized by the Department of Environmental Management consistent with the purposes of § 46-23.2-1 entitled, “The Comprehensive Watershed and Marine Monitoring Act of 2004,” § 46-12, “Water Pollution” and chapter 6.2 of Title 4 entitled “Resilient Rhode Island Act of 2014 Climate Change Coordination Council.” All expenditures from the fund shall be subject to appropriation by the general assembly.

History of Section.
P.L. 2015, ch. 141, art. 16, § 2.