RI State Police Open Criminal Investigation Into Alleged Contamination at 6/10 Project
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
GoLocal has confirmed that the Rhode Island State Police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that the contractor Massachusetts-based Barletta Engineering/Heavy Division transported allegedly contaminated soil onto the 6/10 project site, a RI Department of Transportation project.
Multiple law enforcement sources with first-hand knowledge confirmed the investigation.
James White, President of Local 57 of the International Union of Operating Engineers made the allegations of the transportation of contaminated materials and told GoLocal, “I first brought concerns to Barletta in July and they did nothing. Our folks are trained in identifying hazardous materials and we had concerns about the soil materials they were bringing on to the site.”
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Tim Barletta, another member of the company in 2017 donated $6,000 to Rhode Island Democrats — individually he donated $1,000 to the RI Democratic State Committee, another $4,000 for “party building” and another $1,000 to the RI Good Government PAC, a Democratic political action committee.
Barletta was awarded a portion of the $410 million contract just a few months after the donation by RI DOT. The announcement was made in 2018.
GoLocal has learned that RIDOT was onsite and soil samples were taken, but questions are being raised if the samples were taken from the piles of soil that the union alleges are contaminated.
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) has repeatedly refused to request for comment on the allegations. White had sent RIDEM Director Janet Coit a letter in late August alerting the Department of the union's concerns and the results of the union's testing.
The companies hired by RIDOT for the 6/10 project are called the "6/10 CONSTRUCTORS JOINT VENTURE." That joint venture has been paid in the past three-plus fiscal years $130,649,808, according to Rhode Island state records.
Of the total project cost, Barletta and its partners in the 6-10 Constructors Joint Venture's portion of the project is $247 million. The project was awarded to 6-10 Constructors Joint Venture after it was, the Barletta entities claim, the low bid by “more than 80 million dollars.”
Barletta is also the lead contractor on the Pawtucket/Central Falls Commuter Rail Station and Bus Hub -- a separate $47 million project.
As GoLocal reported earlier on Monday, White told GoLocal that he and his union have paid for testing of soil samples material with one of New England’s leading testing firms. They hired RI Analytical to analyze samples that the union collected from soil trucked in and dumped at the 6/10 project site.
In an email from Ruben Parrilla of RI Analytical to White, Parrilla wrote, "This soil does not meet the industrial/commerical standards for re-use or land application. Seeing that you are in Rhode Island the disposal option would be to send this to the Johnston landfill (see attached) as alternative cover material “urban fill/contaminated (impacted) soil.”
One of the materials found in the samples according to RI Analytical's results was benzo(a)pyrene, "A chemical that comes from certain substances when they are not burned completely. It is found in car exhaust, smoke from wood fires, tobacco, oil and gas products, charred or grilled foods, and other sources. It may also be found in water and soil. Benzo(a)pyrene can cause a skin rash, a burning feeling, skin color changes, warts, and bronchitis. It may also cause cancer," according to the National Cancer Institute.
Two of the samples provided by White to RI Analytical measured 3.4 and 3.5 parts per million for benzo(a)pyrene and that is more than four-times the Rhode Island standard of .08 according to the testing firm.
This story was first published 9/8/2020 6:06 PM
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