Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Director Terry Gray announced today they have filed a civil complaint in Providence County Superior Court against the City of Woonsocket, Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., and Synagro Woonsocket, LLC, alleging violations of Rhode Island’s environmental laws, stemming from their operation of the Woonsocket Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in such a way that partially treated sewage has been intermittently discharged into the Blackstone River.

The Blackstone River has played an important role in Rhode Island’s history, noted the Attorney General in his press release. The river served as the birthplace of America’s Industrial Revolution, catalyzing construction of water-powered mills and settlements all along the Blackstone, and earning the river the nickname, “America’s hardest working river.” This growth came at an environmental cost, however, in the form of heavy discharges by those mills of industrial waste into the river. By 1971, Audubon Magazine described the Blackstone as “one of America’s most polluted rivers.” In 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency designated the Blackstone as “the most polluted river in the country with respect to toxic sediments.”

Over the last 50 years, with the implementation of Clean Water Act programs, the health of the river has improved, and in July of 2021, the National Parks Service established the river as part of the Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park. The river is now home to more than 20 species of fish, as well as beavers, otters, snapping turtles, and a variety of birds, according to the National Parks Service.

Unfortunately, much of that half century of effort is being put at risk by a series of partially treated sewage discharges intermittently dumped into the Blackstone River from Woonsocket’s Wastewater Treatment Facility located at 11 Cumberland Hill Road. The treatment facility is owned by the City of Woonsocket, which contracts the operations and maintenance of the plant to Jacobs Engineering, a Texas-based consulting and engineering firm, and related sludge treatment systems to Synagro Woonsocket LLC, part of Synagro Technologies Inc., headquartered in Baltimore. Woonsocket nets over $500k/yr for the sludge disposal.

The Facility processes between six and eight million gallons of sewage daily and, according to testimony from Woonsocket Director of Public Works Steven D’Agostino before the Woonsocket City Council on March 6, 2023, “runs quite well” and is “state of the art.” D’Agostino has praised the work of Jacobs Engineering. The problem appears to with waste sludge brought in by Synagro, which pays the City to process the sludge. Occasionally, and at the risk of oversimplifying, the sludge processing over taxes the system and results in untreated discharges.

Since at least March of last year the DEM and the Rhode Island Department of Health (DOH) have been sporadically issuing warnings advising residents to avoid both primary contact recreational water activities (wading, swimming) and secondary contact recreational water activities (canoeing, kayaking, rowing, and fishing); and to avoid consuming any fish from the river from the location of the discharge, at Cumberland Hill Road in Woonsocket, to the Slater Mill Dam in Pawtucket.

Uprise RI found no-contact orders from DEM dated 3/23/22, 6/5/22, 6/10/22, and most recently on 3/10/23. One environmentalist told Uprise RI, off the record, that, “these are only the discharges DEM knows about,” hinting that there may have been others. DEM issued letters of noncompliance to the Facility in November, 2021 and March, 2022 regarding operations and maintenance concerns.

On June 27, 2022 DEM lifted the no-contact orders issued earlier that month and reported that the City had taken steps to prevent such discharges. The City and its contractors, reported DEM, “installed additional solids-removal equipment and made other improvements that have resulted in the facility consistently meeting its effluent permit limits for the past few days.” However, the problems were not over.

On September 12, 2022, Director D’Agostino testified to the Woonsocket City Council that, “Since the noncompliance we had over the summer… our wastewater facility is running quite well. The effluent flowing into the river is high quality and [the Facility is] really performing at a high level. The sludge disposal, not so much. We’re not there yet.”

Before the discharges over the summer, Woonsocket “took things for granted” in regards to the waste sludge, said Director D’Agostino. “Things were running along, things were going okay. But as of late I’ve lost confidence in the operation.”

Director D’Agostino went on to say that he had, “recently met with DEM in regards to accepting sludge here in the city and the answer that I received I did not like. I told them, when our facility experienced this upset… I requested that all sludge stop entering the city. And I was told, ‘Well, that can’t happen because you’re responsible for most of the northeastern seaboard.’

D’Agostino testified that he was told that Woonsocket is the “main operation” for sludge. When he asked where the sludge incineration plant in Massachusetts is, he was told there is not one. There is one in Connecticut, he was told, but it is not as big as the Facility in Woonsocket. The Woonsocket facility is basically the only option for sludge disposal in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. This fact, said Director D’Agostino, doesn’t give me a “warm happy feeling.”

As detailed in the complaint brought by the Attorney General, the parties are alleged to have violated the Rhode Island Clean Water Act, the State Freshwater Wetlands Act, the state’s Environmental Rights Act, and the common law of public nuisance as a result of the discharges and failure to meet the conditions of the facility’s discharge permit.

“The discharge of partially treated sewage into the Blackstone River – one of Rhode Island’s treasured natural resources – has gone on long enough. The City, Jacobs, and Synagro have been put on notice by DEM multiple times and have been given ample opportunity to fix this problem. And yet the problem remains unsolved. Accordingly, it has become plain to me that if we do not take the action we are taking today, the Blackstone River and the people of Rhode Island will continue to suffer,” said Attorney General Neronha. “I am extraordinarily grateful to Director Gray and the DEM staff, as they have provided the technical expertise and assistance without which this lawsuit would not be possible. I also remain grateful for our strong partnership as we continue to advocate for and protect Rhode Island’s natural resources and the environment.”  

As alleged in the complaint, DEM has sent the City of Woonsocket, as the owner and holder of the facility’s discharge permit, several letters of non-compliance for failure to comply with the conditions of the permit as a result of the discharges. The facility’s discharge permit has been granted under the Rhode Island Clean Water Act to discharge treated wastewater into the Blackstone. Ultimately, the permit requires that all wastewater generated by the facility be fully treated before being discharged into the Blackstone River.

“DEM staff have inspected this facility 36 times between February of 2022 and today, directed the City and its operators to install temporary solids-removal equipment improvements to bring the plant into compliance until permanent repairs can be made, and were preparing to bring a notice of violation (NOV) to hold the operators accountable for the failures,” said DEM Director Terry Gray. “We look forward to working with the Attorney General in one unified enforcement action to force the operators to resolve the problems and ensure that that the Blackstone River – which through the efforts of thousands of volunteers has had one of the strongest turnarounds of any American river – remains a clean and much-valued recreational resource.”

Environmental groups have praised the legal action:

• “Save The Bay applauds Attorney General Neronha and DEM Director Gray for using their powers to investigate, and stop, the discharge of sewage into the Blackstone River,” said Jonathan Stone, Executive Director of Save The Bay. “The ongoing discharge violates the law and is an insult to all Rhode Islanders, particularly those who live near the ongoing stench, and others who use the Blackstone River and care about Narragansett Bay. Those that violate environmental laws must be held accountable. Significant penalties are critical for encouraging compliance and deterring violations. Sludge management is a complicated issue for the region, but dumping sewage into the river is not the solution. We fully support this action by the Attorney General, the DEM, and their teams.”
• “Clearly, action needed to be taken here, and we applaud the Attorney General and DEM for this enforcement action,” said Jed Thorp, Rhode Island State Director for Clean Water Action. “We have strong environmental rules in Rhode Island, but those rules are only as effective as our ability and willingness to enforce them.”
• “DEM and RI Attorney General Peter Neronha are absolutely making the right call on this issue. Sewage discharge has no place in the beautiful Blackstone River, and it’s time the Woonsocket Wastewater Treatment Facility is held responsible. Failure to stop this ongoing pollution threatens the environment and public health in communities surrounding the river,” said Darrèll Brown, Vice President of Rhode Island Conservation Law Foundation.
• “I am grateful to DEM Director Terry Gray and Attorney General Neronha for taking action to stop the degradation of our natural and recreational resource the Blackstone River. The illegal discharges of solid waste into the Blackstone is a slap in the face to all the community volunteers that have spent the last 30 plus years restoring our river back to a recreational gem,” said John Marsland, President and founder, Blackstone River Watershed Council/Friends of the Blackstone.
• “Advocates have fought for decades to improve what was once called “the hardest working river in America” to be an asset as a recreational opportunity for the numerous communities and tribes in our region and violations such as those in Woonsocket impact that reputation,” says Stefanie Covino from the Blackstone Watershed Collaborative, an umbrella organization of over 100 partners. “We support this enforcement action to demonstrate how critical the Blackstone River is not only critical for the health of Narragansett Bay’s tourism, fishing, and other industries, but also for the communities along the river, which are some of the most underserved in our region. This is an environmental justice issue, as well as an economic, ecological, and health issue. As our populations expand and climate change causes a rise in extreme rain events, our reliance on facilities like Woonsocket will simply be expanding and we need to get this right.”

Two weeks ago, on March 1, DEM issued another no-contact order.

On March 6 the Woonsocket City Council held a special executive session with Director D’Agostino and representatives from Synagro. What was said at this meeting is unknown. During a public council meeting held one hour later, Director D’Agostino downplayed the latest discharge, testifying, “I’m sure the general public has heard that the wastewater facility [experienced] yet another upset – but [it’s] hardly a catastrophe.” He called the reports “sensationalism.”

“I believe the city is at a crossroads,” testified Director D’Agostino. “We’re at an intersection. Do we continue to go straight with the path we’ve been on for 30 or 40 years, and complain about it for another 10, or do we take an exit and pursue another course? … The problems at the facility are not necessarily our problem – they are regional problems.” D’Agostino said he is working with lawyers and engineers to come up with a recommendation on actions to take regarding Synagro in the next few weeks for the mayor and city council.

After the announcement of today’s legal action, DEM lifted the no-contact order, writing, “DEM has inspected the facility five times and had multiple meetings with the city and plant operators investigating the causes that have resulted in the loss of full treatment and observing the steps being taken to ensure a return to permit compliance. As part of this effort, DEM required that the city and its vendors to increase sampling and testing, implement twice-daily reporting of the effluent clarity and solids levels in the facility’s clarifiers, institute process changes, and proceed with the installation of a portable gravity belt thickener until the permanent thickener can be repaired.

“These actions have improved discharge quality to the degree that the plant has been consistently meeting its effluent permit limits since March 3. DEM extended the advisory between March 3 and today because the treatment process wasn’t under control. Based on this and the continued daily monitoring/reporting, DEM is lifting the no-contact advisory effective immediately.”