Katie DeGoosh leans over a concrete abutment alongside Reservoir Avenue and drops a line with a white, Teflon bucket into the clear waters of the Pocasset River. It flows almost unseen through this neighborhood jammed with gas stations, fast-food restaurants and medical buildings.

DeGoosh, a biologist, and Kristen Chantrell, an engineer, both at the state Department of Environmental Management, pull the bucket up to the street and pour the river water into bottles and jars to be analyzed for metals, such as zinc and copper, several kinds of nitrogen, acidity and other indices of pollution.

The river looks clear. But DeGoosh says it has been so long since this tributary to Narragansett Bay was tested, she has no idea whether it is clean or dirty.

The days of not knowing what flows into Narragansett Bay appear to be coming to an end.

In a period when the Bay’s marine life is undergoing dramatic changes, the manner in which state regulators manage the Bay is also evolving.

Public outrage over the historic fish kill in Greenwich Bay in the summer of 2003 led to studies that concluded too many nutrients were flowing into the Bay from many sources. The state ordered communities to upgrade their sewage-treatment systems at a cost of millions of dollars. The outrage also caused scientists and regulators to develop a new system for managing Narragansett Bay.

But it has all come slowly.

Despite the fact that nearly every state politician supported the Bay cleanup, progress has been delayed by political squabbles between the governor and the legislature over financing and personnel and the state’s financial crisis.

Those involved insist there is progress — at least in the scientific and regulatory efforts, if not yet in the Bay itself. And this winter there will be two major developments:

•State officials will present a new strategic plan for managing the state’s bodies of water, both fresh and sea.

•And Rhode Island-based scientists are publishing a book summarizing the last 25 years of science concerning the Bay. A key finding is that parts of the Bay function so differently from other areas, an eco-functional zoning plan should be created to better manage the bays within the Bay.

“We have found that the only constant about Narragansett Bay is change — and we’re in a period of accelerating change,” says Barry A. Costa-Pierce, director of Rhode Island’s Sea Grant program and co-author with Alan Desbonnet of the new book, Science for Ecosystem-Based Management — Narragansett Bay in the 21st Century.