The busiest day in Narragansett Bay is here. Why Aquapalooza is the biggest concern.

Aquapalooza, the annual summer party in Narragansett Bay that drew over 1,000 boats to Potter’s Cove in 2022, will return to the east coast of Portsmouth’s Prudence Island on Saturday.  As usual, law enforcement agencies are not looking forward to their limited resources being heavily strained by the event, which is held on one of the busiest bay weekends of the entire summer.

RIDEM spokesperson Mike Healey, who last year described the event in his comments to The Daily News as “a keg party in the middle of Narragansett Bay on one of the busiest weeks of the summer” and “an unfunded, gigantic liability,” said his agency would again be stretched thin given its need to prioritize patrols of Newport Harbor – Saturday is also the date of Float Fest, with all manner of boats and personal watercraft like kayaks and paddleboards assembling off the coast of Fort Adams State Park to listen to the Newport Folk Fest performances for free in addition to the approximately 10,000 people listening on land.

An extra wrinkle leading into this year’s Aquapalooza is that Portsmouth has a brand new harbormaster.  Because the event is held in Portsmouth’s jurisdictional waters, former harbormaster Bruce Celico had been running point on the interagency incident plan for Aquapalooza patrols and enforcement since 2018. However, he informed The Daily News in a text message that he recently resigned and the post is now held by officer Allison O’Connor.

The Portsmouth harbormaster’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but Healey, who has interfaced with Celico in years past as his point of contact with RIDEM, told the Daily News in an email, "I just spoke with the Portsmouth Police Department, and they plan on coordinating the same kind of multi-agency patrol and enforcement response on Saturday that they’ve always coordinated for Aquapalooza...DEM will be coordinating with the new Harbormaster, Officer O’Connor, tomorrow and are confident that she will be a major asset in helping protect public safety during this highly disruptive event."

Healey also said he anticipated the Portsmouth, Bristol, Warren and Barrington harbormasters would all be sending boats to patrol Potter’s Cove, the DEM would have a patrol boat there “for several hours” before diverting back to Newport, and the Coast Guard “sometimes assists with monitoring.”

Environmental Police Sgt. Harold Guise confirmed the Warwick Police Department would also be allocating officers on the water and on land to assist in managing the unregulated, unpermitted event, and the R.I. State Police “batmobile” – a mobile drunk tank in a trailer replete with a breathalyzer, holding cells and a secure phone line for arrestees – would be parked in Portsmouth to handle potential BUI cases.

During 2022's event two boats sank. At least two boat operators were cited for "boating under the influence" and two other revelers were taken away for emergency medical treatment, including one with a leg injury from a moving propeller.

Healey and Guise explained that while no law enforcement boats from any jurisdiction are equipped with breathalyzers, any harbormaster who is a trained and licensed police officer who has gone through the Municipal Police Academy can make OUI arrests. Healey further explained the administration of a breathalyzer is the last step in a series of steps that the harbormaster/officer must take to present a legitimate OUI case to be prosecuted, and the breathalyzer is administered on land.

While Aquapalooza was first organized by Warwick-based boat dealer Derek Leigh over a decade ago and now draws hundreds of yachts, rafts, jet skis and other vessels not only from around Rhode Island but also from as far away as Long Island, New York, the organization of the annual bash is now decentralized, taking place in a private Facebook group every year. Healey said this makes it difficult for RIDEM or other agencies to pinpoint any individual or organization as being responsible for event management and safety, and likened attempts to regulate the event to “trying to put your hands around mist.”

Citing the Better Bay Alliance’s interactive calendar, Healey called this upcoming Saturday “the busiest day on the bay of the whole summer.” He said in addition to Aquapalooza and Newport Folk Fest there are two sailboat regattas scheduled, and Guise pointed out Saturday is also Governor’s Bay Day and the Blessing of the Fleet in Galilee.

“Our main message this year is that Aquapalooza is a dangerous event that puts other boaters at risk," Healey said. "It jeopardizes sailors who come to the bay for these regattas; it jeopardizes anyone else on the bay.”

DEM will only have one boat out all day, which will split time between Newport and Potter's Cove, and has a second unstaffed boat on the dock in case of emergencies. Healey acknowledged coordinating the multijurisdictional enforcement effort is “a puzzle due to manpower issues.”

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“We often have days where there are not enough officers to deal with what we need to deal with on an every-day basis…I think the (Aquapalooza) weekend is planned specifically for Folk Fest because they know that 10,000 people a day at Fort Adams draws so many resources that it becomes very difficult (for RIDEM and other agencies) to have people (at Potter’s Cove) full-time,” Guise added.

Healey also told The Daily News that due to the high volume of boats anticipated the DEM has preemptively decided to close all shellfishing areas around Potter’s Cove for a full week following the event. He cited a high risk of accidental or intentional (and illegal) sewage discharge from marine toilets on larger vessels.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Aquapalooza in Potter's Cove raises concerns with RI officials