PROVIDENCE – A 458-acre portion of the western side of Bristol Harbor has been closed to shellfishing due to a sewage spill, the state Department of Environmental Management announced Friday.

The emergency closure, which took effect at sunrise on March 9 and extends through sunrise on Saturday, March 30, includes waters north of a line extending from the southernmost tip of Usher Point in Bristol to the northernmost tip of Hog Island. The emergency closure includes the Bristol Harbor seasonal shellfish area (GA3-2) located in the northwestern portion of Bristol Harbor.

More than 4 inches of rain fell in the Providence area in the last seven days. Along with flow restrictions in the Bristol Wastewater Treatment Facility’s main pump station, the rainfall resulted in an overflow of around 180,000 gallons of untreated wastewater into Bristol Harbor, according to the DEM.

The emergency shellfish closure is necessary to provide adequate dilution volume and time for shellfish in the area be cleansed of pollutants that may have been discharged into Bristol Harbor, as per U.S. Food And Drug Administration guidance for safe shellfish harvest, DEM said.

Staff at the wastewater treatment facility have set up an additional pump ahead of this weekend’s predicted rain to prevent additional sewage overflows.

DEM, the state Department of Health and the Coastal Resources Management Council, along with industry partners, collaborate to ensure the safety of shellfish grown and harvested from Rhode Island waters, according to the announcement. This is achieved by monitoring the waters where shellfish are harvested and enabling a quick response when conditions indicate a change in water quality due to algae blooms or unusual weather events.

For more information on the shellfish harvesting classifications, review the annual notice available at RIDEM – Shellfish. An interactive shellfishing map is also available.

For information on closures, call DEM’s 24-hour shellfishing hotline at (401) 222-2900, visit dem.ri.gov/shellfish, or sign up for the Office of Water Resources’ listserv here: RishellfishOWR-subscribe@listserve.ri.gov.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Sewage spill spurs closure of Bristol Harbor to shellfishing