It’s been nearly two years since the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against a metal recycling company on the Providence waterfront for allegedly failing to comply with environmental protection laws.
Environmentalists who have been pushing for accountability say the case is taking too long. Rhode Island Public Radio Environmental Reporter Ambar Espinoza has an update.
During a boat ride along the Providence River, Save the Bay Executive Director Jonathan Stone praises the improved health of upper Narragansett Bay as the boat cruises near a public pathway recently completed by ProvPort.
“This really is one of the most popular fishing spots in the city of Providence,” said Stone. “It is a great place to catch striped bass.”
But Stone says there’s still more work to be done.
“Cleaning up the waterfront on these old contaminated sites is one important action,” said Stone. “Another is to keep working on other pollutants that enter the bay.”
One area along the Providence waterfront that’s of top concern for Stone is the property where Rhode Island Recycled Metals operates. Save the Bay’s former Bay Keeper Tom Kutcher directs the boat toward several derelict vessels, including a Russian submarine, sitting on the waterside of the scrap metal recycler.
“The Russian sub is what started it all,” said Kutcher. “That was their first operation, to break apart that sub.”
What’s left of the submarine looks like a few hunks of metal poking out of the water. It’s been sitting there for roughly seven years. It used to be a museum upriver.
“And they took their sweet time with this Russian sub and as they worked on the Russian sub, they took more and more ships in here, two of which are sitting on the bottom of the river here,” noted Kutcher. “Russian sub is still sitting on the bottom of the river, mostly dismantled; they took all the easy stuff off, and now it just sits there.”
There’s also a ferry, a sunken tugboat, and two big barges. Kutcher and Stone say those are problems in the water and point to more on land. The state says the company damaged a protective soil cap meant to keep toxic chemicals, like PCBs, from getting into the air and water.
“And in fact, they exacerbated the problem by removing the bulk head that was there and putting a slope so they could pull some of these ships up over the ground, which is entirely illegal,” said Kutcher.
But the company’s lawyer disputes that and other charges that Rhode Island Recycled Metals is polluting the environment. As he stood next to the area Kutcher talked about, attorney Richard Nicholson said the company had the proper permits to construct this ramp from both DEM and the Coastal Resources Management Council.
As far as the Russian submarine is concerned, “We requested to build a Texas dry dock,” he said. “We requested to guillotine her in place. We made our request as early back as 2011. And unfortunately, here we are today without the state approving the plan.”
Nicholson said DEM turned down the company’s plan without explaining why. He said the state is holding up the cleanup process, and the two sides haven’t been able to reach an agreement, “which is why today we have a special master.”
Nicholson believes the special master brings transparency to the case.
“This is a complicated environmental situation,” said Richard Land, the court-appointed special master selected this summer to oversee cleanup on the property. “My understanding is that there’s no immediate environmental concern relative to the vessels that are in the water.”
What he means is that the boat engines are not leaking any oil. “Nevertheless, having the oil in there, I fully recognize could have an environmental impact whether it’s small or significant,” said Land. “And it’s not something that anybody wants to have happen.”
Land said he’s not involved with any efforts to test if PCBs and other chemicals are running off from the property. His first order of business was to secure all the vessels in the water, so that they don’t break away during a storm. Now he’s making recommendations on the best ways to remove the vessels in the water. Land said how quickly that happens depends on a lot of things.
“The foremost factor is cost,” said Land. “So conceivably, we could have a third party come in and pick these vessels out of the water and put them on barges and cart them away and that could take a relatively short period of time. And I’m not talking weeks. I’m talking months.
That’s a very costly proposition and I don’t have control of funds to dictate that that’s how it should go.”
Land said even though the company and state officials aren’t on the same page, both parties are cooperating with him to move forward with a cleanup plan.
“Do I expect this to take years more to get these vessels dealt with? Certainly not,” said Land. “If things continue to go on the road that they’re on now, I would expect that a year from now, there shouldn’t be any vessels in the water – if things continue to move along their current course and everything goes smoothly.”
In the meantime, Rhode Island Recycled Metals continues to operate. Land said he’s hopeful the judge in the case will soon approve a proposal to remove the vessels. And he sees that as progress.
