DEM says Portsmouth dump capping now in compliance

Rhode Island's Department of Environmental Management has found that the firm conducting capping operations at Portsmouth's former town dump has cleaned up some bad soil that made its way onto the site and is now in compliance, according to a document provided to media by DEM Principal Environmental Scientist Mark Dennen. In a cover e-mail, Dennen said:

As you are aware, the Department issued a Notice of Intent to Enforce regarding a soil received from Newport that was found to be unacceptable. Since then, soil has been removed, confirmation sampling has been done and APE has agreed to do more frequent sampling. Consequently, a Letter of Compliance was issued today (attached).

As you may be aware, the Beneficial Use Determination will end on September 20, 2015. After this date, AP Enterprises will only be allowed to accept soil meeting residential criteria and will have to complete final capping, grading and seeding activities within 1 year.

In the enclosed "Letter of Compliance," Dennen outlines the remediation steps that Arthur Palmer Enterprise (APE) had taken: removing the soil, disposing of it at an approved location, accepting no additional soil from the site, reimbursing DEM for testing, and providing a plan for increasing sampling frequency to every 2,000 cubic yards.

You can read the full document here.