Missing links in water pollution control: The case of combined sewer overflows in upper Narragansett Bay

Combined sewer overflows have been a major problem in the upper portion of Narragansett Bay, causing Rhode Island officials to close the productive shellfish beds from harvesting after .5 inch rainfalls. Federal pollution control policy since 1972 has emphasized implementation of uniform discharge limits rather than solving site specific problems. Several studies of the Rhode Island overflow problem have still not produced a clear abatement policy due to the failure to place individual overflow discharges into a broader pollution control framework which convincingly links specific sources of overflows to the contamination of the shellfish beds.