Problems in Statewide Uniform Air Quality Enforcement

Abstract

The Rhode Island Clean Air Act, forming a Division of Air Pollution Control within the State Department of Health, went into effect on January 1, 1967. Under this Act the new7 Division was given responsibility for air quality throughout the State of Rhode Island. All municipal air pollution control organizations were now defunct. Six basic regulations were introduced seven months later, following the award of a federal two-thirds matching grant. It wras announced that, since Rhode Island has only 1082 square miles with approximately 900,000 people, uniform regulations would apply throughout the state. Since Rhode Island has 39 municipalities, with a surprising variance of population densities, resistance to statewide uniform regulations has been encountered. The smaller towns have shown little enthusiasm for converting their uncovered and burning dumps into sanitary landfills, and the four cities with offending incinerators are reluctant either to make recommended corrections or to build new plants. The state’s eight hot-mix asphalt plants are preparing to meet dust emission standards identical to the San Francisco Bay Area table. However, the nine gray iron cupola plants are requesting special, more lenient regulations. A careful study is being made of this request. Two difficult problems are the U. S. Navy’s firefighting school at Newport and the recent installation by an insurance company of the world’s largest firefighting research center; neither of which have any provisions to abate the pollution they create. It is conceivable that an account of difficulties experienced in Rhode Island’s effort to inaugurate the nation’s first program incorporating statewide uniform air quality may be useful to those contemplating the formation of regional organizations.