A battle of wills between the R.I. Airport Corporation and state Attorney General C. Patrick Lynch has been simmering since March, when, after the airport missed a Jan. 1 deadline to install air quality monitors, Lynch gave RIAC 45 days to install a temporary system, and until Sept. 8 to have a permanent one in place.
Air quality around T.F. Green Airport has been a contentious issue for several years due to local residents’ concerns about potential cancer risks. A limited study by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management assuaged some of those concerns, but it still found levels of hazardous pollutants exceeding target levels, while at the same time soot levels were elevated.
To get more definitive answers, the General Assembly passed legislation requiring the airport to set up a monitoring system by last Jan. 1. But the measure was vague, and though a temporary system was set up in April, Lynch wants to strengthen the law’s requirements.
“The existing law is pretty basic, and it authorizes the airport to install a permanent air quality monitoring system, but it doesn’t clarify what their obligations are for how the data should be used in respect to what the reporting requirements are,” said Tricia Jedele, special assistant attorney general and environmental advocate.
“You have these monitors generating data, and you would assume that’s used in some meaningful way, but the existing law isn’t really clear,” Jedele added. “They could say, ‘All right, we installed it, but we didn’t bring power lines to the monitors.’ Or ‘We turned them on but we’re not required to do anything with the data.’ ”
Jedele said that “to be fair,” she doesn’t believe airport officials intend to abuse the loopholes, but those loopholes still need to be addressed.
The new legislation, which is already being considered by the House, and for which there is a companion in the works for the Senate, clarifies that the airport not only has to install a monitoring system, but it also must collect data and then turn over that data to the legislature, the DEM and the R.I. Department of Health. Both sides have worked on the language.
“Don’t underestimate the value of clarity,” said Rep. Eileen Naughton, D-Warwick, who sponsored the measure. “Because the clarity has been resolved, I think there’s also a new willingness among all parties. I see a willingness of RIAC to be the good neighbor they talk about being.”
Jedele said the new legislation also “adds oversight and accountability.”
“Now with these new bills there would be an enforcement mechanism for the AG if they fail to comply and penalties for failure to comply. And built into the process is public involvement that should have been there from the beginning,” she said. “It makes it very clear so two years from now we’re not standing around debating what they were supposed to do three and a half years ago.”
Meanwhile, Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general, said a May 4 tour of the airport revealed that a temporary monitoring system has yet to be installed on the east side of the airport, where residents “have expressed a lot of concerns.”
“But our understanding is that RIAC is preparing to install a monitor east of the airport as quickly as it can,” Healey added, “and the steps RIAC has taken within the last couple of weeks to a month are very encouraging.”
(RIAC has installed temporary monitors to the north, west and south of the airport, the inspectors confirmed. But the east side is of particular concern because “the prevailing winds blow from west to east,” Lynch said on Friday. “We have heard from a number of Hoxsie constituents who obviously care a great deal about the installation of this monitoring shed.”)
Patti Goldstein, spokeswoman for RIAC, said the airport is working to comply with the state.
“The temporary monitors are up and running as of April and … we’re looking into monitoring east of the airport as well,” she said.
