Save The Bay announces award winners

PROVIDENCE – Save The Bay on Friday announced this year’s slate of environmental award winners, including Dr. Candace Oviatt who’s being recognized with the lifetime achievement award.
Oviatt, of Richmond, is an oceanography professor at the University of Rhode Island. She is also the director of URI’s Marine Ecosystems Research Lab. Save The Bay says her research has help the R.I. Department of Environmental Management take action that’s resulted in “significant reductions in nutrient pollutant loadings to upper Narragansett Bay and has been instrumental in advancing water pollution control and protection of Rhode Island coastal waters.”
Judith Swift and Tom Borden of the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program nominated Oviatt and in their nomination they called her “one of the most respected experts in the study of coastal ecosystems with a particular emphasis on the study of Narragansett Bay,” according to a press release.
In a prepared statement, Oviatt said she was surprised and honored to receive the award and lauded Save The Bay for being a “watchdog of the bay.”
The award ceremony will be held during Save The Bay’s annual meeting at 5:30 p.m. on June 11 at 100 Save The Bay Drive in Providence. It will precede the group’s Taste of The Bay fundraising event.
This year’s recipients also include:

  • Environmental Achievement Award: Angelo S. Liberti III, chief of surface water protection at R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
  • Alison Walsh Award for Outstanding Environmental Advocacy: Dave McLaughlin, of Middletown, co-founder and executive director of Clean Ocean Access.
  • Volunteer of the Year: Louise Pryor, 93, of Cranston.
  • Bay Educator of the Year: Heidi Gauch, of Middletown, science teacher at Gaudet Middle School.
  • Bay Student of the Year: Isra Siddiq, rising senior at North Attleboro High School.
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