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6/11/2026
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Lawmakers approve DiMario, Valverde bills for moratorium on Quonset sewage pyrolysis project, sludge disposal study
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STATE HOUSE – The General Assembly has put a hold on any proposal for high-heat sewage solids processing at Quonset Business Park while a commission studies potential answers to the question of how the state can safely dispose of such byproducts.
Lawmakers gave final approval today to bills sponsored by Sen. Bridget Valverde and Sen. Alana M. DiMario to enact the yearlong moratorium and create a special legislative commission to study the issue.
“While the question of the appropriateness of the proposal at Quonset/Davisville needs to be considered, Rhode Island needs to find solutions for burgeoning problem of biosolid disposal statewide. Much of our state and our region relies on an incinerator in Woonsocket that is going to shut down, and we need a plan for what we can safely do. Today we know more than ever before about contaminants like PFAS and microplastics that are in biosolids, and we have to explore the options to determine how we protect public health and the environment while also considering costs to ratepayers,” said Senator DiMario (D-Dist. 36, Narragansett, North Kingstown, New Shoreham). “We need to look at whether it’s best to handle this regionally or statewide, publicly or privately, and we need a process for fairly siting any sort of biosolids processing facility. It’s a complex issue with a lot of questions that need answers urgently, because we are on the precipice of a crisis.”
The city of Woonsocket has been working to close the 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.
Senator Valverde’s bill (2026-S 3224A), which is cosponsored by Senator DiMario and Sen. Dawn Euer (D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown), places a moratorium on the operation of any thermal waste conversion facility within the Quonset Business Park until June 1, 2027. The bill is aimed at a proposal to construct a $150 million facility at the business park to convert sewage solids — the bioproduct of sewage processing that is left after water is extracted, sometimes called biosolids or sludge— into fertilizer using the high-heat process known as pyrolysis.
Although the business park granted a lease for the project in November 2024 and it received an air quality permit in January, neighbors and town officials didn’t learn about the project until March, due to very limited public disclosure requirements in those processes. The Quonset Development Corporation has verbally agreed to pause the project while the commission studies the issue, but without the moratorium bill, there would be no legal requirement.
“This proposed facility would take in thousands of tons of dewatered sewage sludge every year, threatening the health and safety of neighbors, schools and other businesses nearby. It has no place in Davisville. Our community has a lot of concerns, and it’s not appropriate that the laws governing QDC do not call for any kind of public participation in the process, essentially enabling such a concerning project to be approved in secret,” said Senator Valverde (D-Dist. 35, North Kingstown, East Greenwich, South Kingstown). “This bill ensures that it cannot move forward at least until the study commission does its work to determine how we should be disposing of biosolids and a fair process for siting any such facility.”
The study commission bill (2026-S 3225Aaa), sponsored by Senator DiMario and cosponsored by Senators Valverde and Euer, creates a 21-member commission to 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 possibilities, including pyrolysis and other processes for biosolid disposal, to make sludge management more sustainable in Rhode Island. The panel would be tasked with delivering its findings and recommendations by April 1, 2027.
Stakeholders in the Quonset proposal have agreed to participate in the commission’s study.
Senator DiMario also sponsored, with Senator Valverde as a cosponsor, legislation enacted last year requiring 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. The House sponsor of that legislation, Rep. Terri Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown), is also the sponsor of the House bill creating the commission (2026-H 7532Baa).
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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