A Touisset Point resident is talking with Save The Bay and hopes the environmental organization and state will take steps to do away with the blue styrofoam blocks often used to provide buoyancy to floating docks.

Fred Massie, of Brownell Street, kayaks often along the Kickemuit River, keeping at it even through the cold winter months. He said he often sees small and large chunks of the stuff that have broken off floating docks up and down the river. Recently, he’s spotted large, six-eight foot sections floating on the Kicky and has towed them in, hauling them up and out of the high tide zone.

“It’s something I never noticed until I started finding these things and bringing them in,” he said. “It’s a problem that no one seems to be paying attention to.”

Mr. Massie has reached out to Save The Bay and hopes the environmental group can work with the state DEM to ban the unencapsulated foam’s use in the Ocean State. Unlike some foam that is sheathed in plastic housing, the blue foam he’s noticed has no covering and often deteriorates after spending time in the water, or being battered around in the shallows. He finds small bits of the stuff everywhere, he said.

“I’m hoping that (Save The Bay) is passing it on to their barkeeper,” he said. “It seems to me like a no brainer. Because they don’t have the plastic surround, they create almost a rain of styrofoam into the water.”