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<TITLE>Early Re-opening of Area A</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>The Department of Environmental Management announces that Conditional Area A in upper Narragansett Bay will re-open to shellfishing beginning at sunrise Saturday April 25, two and one half days earlier than the scheduled April 28th at noon re-opening. The area has been closed to shellfishing since Noon on Tuesday, 21 following a 1.03"rainstorm on Monday evening into Tuesday morning.<BR>
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The early opening is possible due to operation of Narragansett Bay Commission's Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) tunnel, phase II which went on line in December 2014, and an agreement reached between DEM and US FDA which allows DEM and to re-open Conditional Areas A or B to shellfish harvesting as soon as post-storm monitoring data demonstrates it is safe to do so. DEM developed this plan to expedite the benefits associated with the tremendous investment in construction of NBC's Phase II CSO storage tunnel.<BR>
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