Business & Tech

Resource Recovery Director Issues Letter To Residents

Michael OConnell published an open letter to residents of Johnston and Cranston on Nov. 10.

The following is a letter issued on Nov. 10 by Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation Executive Director Michael OConnell. It is published here in its entirety. A copy of the letter is also attached to this article.

To All Residents of Johnston and Cranston:

My name is Mike OConnell and I am the Executive Director of

I am writing today because we recognize that many of you have been identified as coming from our facility since mid-September. Let me first say that we apologize for this terrible nuisance and have put all available resources behind resolving this problem as soon as possible. It is the Corporation’s number one priority.

Last Wednesday, we held a meeting with elected state and local officials from Johnston and Cranston to discuss the recent issues. That meeting was also attended by the Department of Environmental Management, Broadrock Renewable Power (the operators of our landfill gas collection system), and the Chairman and Vice Chairwoman of RIRRC’s Board of Commissioners.

The purpose of the meeting was to review the causes of the recent odors coming from the landfill and to explain the corrective actions now being taken. I want you to know that these issues are resolvable; it will take some time, however, for our corrective actions to take full effect. We do expect that improvement will be noticed over the next three to four weeks as our corrective actions are implemented.

As part of our action plan, we are doing the following:

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  1. Placing additional layers of soil, above those required by law, on the landfill by Nov. 18, 2011.
  2. Installing additional wells to capture more landfill gases by Nov. 23, 2011.
  3. Installing a system to make existing gas collection pipes more effective by Dec. 23, 2011.
  4. Hiring an independent third-party environmental firm to review current air quality.
  5. Hiring an independent third party to conduct a full scale assessment of the existing gas collection system to determine further actions that can be taken to minimize the possibility of these issues occurring in the future.


Our plan is to give you another written update of the overall situation in the coming weeks. You can also keep up with our progress at www.rirrc.org/odors.

We value the relationship we have with our neighbors and believe that any impact we have on them is not acceptable. We also value open communication, therefore if you wish to submit an odor complaint or let us know that the odors have improved, please call 401-942-1430 Ext. 150 during regular business hours (Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), or our 24/7 line at 401-413-6219, or write to us at info@rirrc.org.

Sincerely,

Mike OConnell
Executive Director
Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation


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