Assembly creates commission to study sludge disposal
STATE HOUSE –A special joint legislative commission will study Rhode Island’s growing biosolids disposal challenges under legislation sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend that was signed by the governor yesterday.
The effort is aimed at facilitating the development of a comprehensive, statewide solution to what has been described as a looming concern over increasingly limited options for disposal of biosolids or sludge — the solid, semisolid or liquid waste generated from wastewater treatment plants as well as facilities that treat water supplies or control air pollution.
“The options for disposing of biosolids are becoming more limited. There are many concerns about how to safely dispose of it, the expense to public agencies and the environmental and community repercussions of various methods. It’s a serious and complicated issue that affects virtually all communities, and it calls for examination and discussion by experts and stakeholders from around our state,” said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown), who last year sponsored successful legislation to require anyone applying for a permit to spread biosolids on land as fertilizer to first test the material for PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which contaminate land and water.
Under Representative Cortvriend’s resolution (2026-H 7532Baa), the 21-member commission will study and develop recommendations for strategies for managing biosolids and wastewater byproducts across the state. The commission is tasked with studying costs to ratepayers and environmental and climate impacts, and identifying potential statewide solutions and future opportunities, such as the use of pyrolysis and other processes for biosolid disposal, to make sludge management more sustainable in Rhode Island. The panel is tasked with delivering its findings and recommendations by April 1, 2027.
Stakeholders involved in a sludge management and pyrolysis facility proposed at Quonset Business Park, which has been put on hold, have agreed to be involved in the study.
Many Rhode Island communities may soon face steeper challenges in disposing of sludge. The city of Woonsocket has been working to close a sludge incinerator there when the contract with its operator ends in 2027. That facility handles the biosolids of more than 15 communities and regional agencies across Rhode Island, including the Narragansett Bay Commission, plus more in Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is one of only two sewage incinerators in the state, the other being a much smaller one in Cranston. Rhode Island Resource Recovery also operates a small sludge recycling facility.
Representative Cortvriend said that among the aspects of the issue she hopes the commission will study is whether the state should institute a formal siting process for sludge management facilities, similar to the public process for siting power plants.