Stain on the Bay - Fire on Allens Ave Raises More Questions About RI’s Environmental Enforcement
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Providence City Councilman Pedro Espinal is criticizing the ongoing contamination of South Providence after a fire erupted at the Rhode Island Recycled Metals site on the waterfront on Tuesday, sending black smoke into the air.
The site where the fire took place has operated under the claim that it is cutting up a sunken Russian submarine that was located in Providence more than a decade ago to serve as a museum. The sub was once used in a Harrison Ford movie -- "K-19: The Widowmaker.” The site is covered with debris — appliances, metal scrap, and garbage unrelated to the submarine.
“The scrap yards along Allens Avenue are continually polluting our neighborhoods, and we were lucky that what occurred today was quickly contained. What would happen if it was an oil tanker? It would have been a disaster,” said Espinal who represents Ward 10.
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The ongoing issues on Allens Avenue and the ongoing investigation by both state and federal law enforcement into contaminated soil dumped in Olneyville in 2020 as part of the 6/10 construction project raises questions about the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s (DEM) enforcement policies— especially in poor minority neighborhoods.
The Department once had an elite investigative unit, but under DEM Director Janet Coit that unit has been slashed to a single investigator.
For sitting Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha in his first nearly two years in office as the state’s chief law enforcement official, there has been little emphasis on pursuing environmental crimes.
In the first 20 months in office, Neronha issued 139 press releases and just one was related to environmental enforcement.
The press release claimed that his office had levied a record penalty, but the majority of the fine was waived as part of the settlement — thus, no longer making it a record penalty.
As U.S. Attorney, environmental enforcement plummeted during the Neronha era. Under Neronha between 2013 and 2018, his office issued more than 820 press releases, and just two dealt with the environment. One of the announcements regarded a 20+-year-old Superfund case and the other was a settlement agreement by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against RIDOT.
Councilman Espinal says the residents of South Providence are suffering. “[Tuesday's] fire was yet another example of why I have been advocating for eliminating these types of businesses in South Providence, and indeed the whole City. This area has the highest rates of childhood asthma in the state, and we are ninth in the nation, and it’s because of businesses like these," said Espinal.
Environmental Impact
"At around 9:30 AM, the rubber coating of the remnants of a submarine ignited [at Rhode Island Recycled Metals] while workers were working on it," said Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management spokesperson Mike Healey. "Since entering a consent order with DEM in June 2019, Rhode Island Recycled Metals LLC (RIRM) has been dismantling the sub. At one time it had sunk in the Providence River along with other vessels owned by RIRM."
"Our hazmat specialist who inspected the scene said that while workers were cutting the sub (they use blow torches), a spark ignited the rubber coating. It spread quickly and burnt a section about 10 feet by 10 feet in size. Like a tire fire, it caused a lot of black smoke. The Providence Fire Department responded quickly. They put it out with water and did not have to use firefighting foam. That’s a plus because firefighting foam includes chemicals that can contaminate the environment," said Healey.
A Decade of Controversy - Failure of Environmental Enforcement
After years of polluting and calls for legal action, in 2016 Superior Court Justice Michael A. Silverstein appointed a Special Master to oversee the cleanup of the Rhode Island Recycled Metals (RIRM) scrap metal operation on Allens Avenue along the Providence waterfront.
Justice Silverstein appointed Attorney Richard J. Land of the Providence firm of Chace, Ruttenberg & Freedman to "(1) immediately take initial measures such as covering exposed piles of contaminated soil on the site, (2) investigate the site, (3) develop a plan for cleaning up the site, and, (4) if the court approves the plan, to implement the plan. All of this is to be done at the site owner’s and the site operator’s expense."
Background
On July 25, 2013, RIRM entered into a Consent Agreement to resolve a Notice of Violation the DEM issued against the company on May 7, 2012, for discharging stormwater to the Providence River without a permit. RIRM agreed to maintain short-term mitigative actions to prevent pollution to the Providence River; complete all construction of stormwater controls by September 30, 2014, in accordance with the permits as required by the Agreement; and complete the removal of all derelict vessels from the Providence River and restore the shoreline of the river by December 30, 2014, to its condition prior to the unauthorized activities by RIRM.
Inspections by DEM in October and December 2014 and January and February 2015, and inspections by the United States Coast Guard in January 2015 revealed that the companies failed to: comply with the mitigative measures; install the stormwater controls required by the Agreement; remove the derelict vessels and restore the shoreline, and prevent oil spillage to the land and water.
"We are the Ocean State, and our waterways are our most precious natural resource. We need our businesses to do better, be safer, and transition to cleaner and safer practices," said Espinal.
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