For the second time since 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency has
cited the Narragansett Bay Commission as having the nation’s best system
for preventing industrial pollutants from contaminating water resources.
The commission, Rhode Island’s largest wastewater authority, was cited
by the EPA as having the best pre-treatment program in the nation. The
commission serves the cities of Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket,
Cranston, and East Providence, as well as the towns of Johnston, North
Providence, Cumberland, Lincoln, and Smithfield.
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The commission also received the EPA’s top honor in 1990, the year the
award was created.
Throughout the communities the commission serves, restaurants,
laboratories, hospitals, laundromats, machine shops, and manufacturers
produce contaminants which wastewater treatment centers are unable to
handle. As Rhode Island has done to combat this, wastewater treatment
centers across the country, have also instituted pre-treatment programs
to prevent toxins from getting into their water treatment systems in the
first place.
This prevents contaminants from damaging sewer systems — and the
environment.
Sixteen years ago, before the commission’s pre-treatment program was in
place, local companies dumped nearly 1 million pounds of metals and
toxic chemicals into the state’s largest wastewater treatment facility,
commission chairman Vincent J. Mesolella said in a statement.
Pretreatment has removed some 94 percent of metals and 90 percent of
cyanide from the wastewater stream, the statement said.
Each of the businesses that dump into the treatment plant must have a
permit from the commission which states what the company is allowed to
discharge. Companies are also required to meet specific limits designed
to protect sewer workers and the general public, said Tom Uva, the
commission’s pre-treatment program manager.
Companies are required to do their own testing. But the commission also
conducts unannounced tests at company sites to keep them honest.
Commission members also monitor the sewer lines, Uva said.
The 1,200 permitted users of the commission’s treatment
facility must get their permit updated every five years. The limits on
the levels of toxins they may emit are set by the EPA, Uva said.
The commission was nominated for this year’s award by the EPA regional
office in Boston. The rating was based on an evaluation of the
compliance of the commission’s member businesses, sampling, inspections,
record keeping, enforcement, program implementation, and public
awareness.
“We competed with larger plants across the country,” Uva said, “(and) we
came out as the best in the country.”
Uva said the reason the commission is cited consistently by the EPA — it
was nominated for the award in 1995 but did not win — is that it
attempts to go beyond the minimum environmental standards.
“Many
(treatment plants) do the bare minimum to satisfy the minimum that EPA
establishes,” he said.
By contrast, the commission offers a free pollution prevention program
to any company, in which companies may learn how to deal with
contaminants in a cost effective manner. The problem is that many
companies do not exploit this opportunity, Uva said.
“It’s unfortunate that a lot of companies don’t take advantage (of the
program),” he said. “But it’s out there.”
