The warm, moist air of an early September morning
hangs quietly over the Rhode Island Convention Center here, and the sun is just beginning to peek through the clouds above the
nearby state Capitol.
A breakwater built in the 1940s to protect the Long Beach port «traps urban runoff, making the city's water quality among the poorest in the
state» and exhaust from the many vehicles operating, and idling, in the harbor area
hangs over
nearby communities.