Rhode Island’s Residential Wastewater Treatment: The Consequences of it’s Avoidance & an

Overlook of our paths of Absolvement 1

Rhode Island’s Wastewater Treatment: A study of consistent simple pollution & its handling.

Shane Hagaman

English IV/Environmental Science

Mrs. Michele Percival & Mr. Brendan Haggerty

December 11, 2020

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Abstract

Rhode Island cesspools are another means of pollution to our environment not originally

forethought by our progenitors by dispersing our waste to infiltrate surrounding waters and soils,

poisoning our state. These vaguely standardized buried chambers collect our excrement and

wastewater without dispersal nor treatment, thereby leading to concentration of hazardous filth in

one location. Depending on the depth of the cesspool and the malleability of its construction, the

holding of the cesspool may be prone to contamination of nearby soil and groundwater. This

contaminated groundwater can flow into other bodies of water such as well waters and

surface-waters, posing adverse health impacts amongst all life not immune to the toxicity of

possible pathogens & chemicals. The effects of these cesspools have already been linked; with

prior closures of Oakland Beach, Yawgoog Pond, Bonnet Shores, the North Kingstown Town

Beach, Scarborough Beach, and many more public areas being due to high bacteria & virus

counts in the water after heavy rains. These pathogens include Enterococci bacteria which

produce various minor to dire infections & Fecal Coliform viruses such as E.coli.

A conclusion to this still prevailing issue, is progressing the disemboweling of all Rhode

Island cesspits and faulty water water treatment systems; either centralizing the wastewater

treatment households with the area’s or by providing property owners possessing archaic

devices, replacement full-proof treatment systems as stated by the University of Rhode Island.

Concluding the problem however requires either financial funding and labor assistance from the
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state government. For data concludes that while the standardized mandate of implementamenting

new systems began in 2015, with a number of 25,000 cesspools, public waterholes have only

continued to consistently close because exceedingly high amounts of bacterial contamination

present after heavy rainfall. This direct correlation has been noticed by the state of Rhode Island,

which has attempted to circumvent the plight of water runoff by construction of storm drains.

However only the city of Warwick & town of Charlestown has truly handled the problem head

on within their reach by removing directly impactful cesspits within their Oakland Beach area.

Keywords: Rhode Island Wastewater, Water Pollution, Cesspits, Hazardous Runoff,

Beach Closings

Research Reflections

My Question
By living in the “Ocean State” our proximity to the ocean and Narragansett Bay constitutes a

major part of our culture. To have our local bodies of water polluted maims our identity as Rhode

Islanders. The inspiration for the topic came to me when traveling to Sabin Point and viewing the

condition of the beach & the puny plurality of wildlife compared to Fort Weatherall, I saw that

our state is dying, or at least recovering from our mistreatment. Noticing the proximity that Sabin

Point had to human habitation, I wondered if the waste water we produce and handle may

harmfully excrete into our bay & bodies of water. I hoped to learn that our home’s most prized

feature is being nurtured again after centuries of our malhandling, and how we are doing so.
Rhode Island’s Wastewater Treatment System Ills & Residential Renovation 4

What harm does our wastewater pose to our environment, and in particular to bodies of water in

Rhode Island & its inhabitants?

Research Reflection

Data collection primarily consisted of diving into the URI directory of the “New England

Onsite Wastewater Training Program” and the Narragansett Bay Commision’s website. Besides

these two online articles my other keen citation interest has been the Secretary of State’s archive,

in particular the legal documents plan of the Rhode Island Bays, Rivers, & Watersheds

Coordination Team; titled “Bays, Rivers, and Watersheds Systems-Level Plan: 2009-2013”, and

another legal document, but this time an act titled “An Act Relating to Health and Safety-The

Rhode Island Cesspool Act of 2007; (although the act was actually approved in 2015 then

enacted in 2016. The Narragansett Bay Commission’s site recalls the history of Rhode Island’s

general water treatment since the 18th century, showing the advancement of our knowledge and

care for the environment and digression of pollution.Up until 1870 the whole state was without a

sewer system, resorting to cesspits and jettisoning into waters. Providence at the time being

scourged with diseases as a result of its high population and undeveloped waste management,

which only disposed of crap into waters, was forced to recognize the need of waste treatment.

Inspired by contemporary English waste systems, the city would construct the 3rd Sewage

Treatment System in the nation for Providence by 1901 at Field’s Point. However due to

advancing technologies, population climb and problematic inadequacies of chemical

precipitation treatment, the plant would be rendered useless by 1910. Dumping of filth into

Rhode Island waters would persist until 1934 with the plant’s transition into a new activated
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sludge plant. From there on for the next two decades the plant would modernize till 1959. From

‘59 to ‘70 the Field’s Point plant aged and degraded from lack of continuous maintenance. With

time, the decline of the plant resulted in 65 million gallons of harmful sewage to dilute Rhode

Island’s waters everyday, jeopardizing shellfish populations & overall economic &

environmental health. 1972 , 1979, and 80’ would bring the delcarment of the “Clean Water

Act”, setting the modern presidents for water purity and pollution standards. By 2017 millions of

dollars would be sunk into Field’s Point, and with no sign of stopping the progress, the project

garners EPA awards for it’s proficiency. However this is all in the public sector of Rhode Island’s

Wastewater Treatment.

Throughout Rhode Island residential/personal waste treatment systems still lay behind the

times. As of 2015, there were over 25,000 pre-70’s levels of waste disposal systems. A cesspool

being defined as “any buried chamber (could be a metal tank, a perforated concrete vault, or a

covered hollow or excavation) that receives sewage from a building for disposal into the

ground.” . These cesspools are much the same as Providence’s waste management system prior

to 1934, hazardous to any nearby bodies of water, and toxic to the soil if mismanaged. Concerns

include rising water levels compromising cesspool function and spreading the wastewater to

drainage basins at a longer range and the wastewater violating drinking water health standards.

Those with proximity to tidal water areas and public drinking water supplies are the main

concern, for if rising water levels violate already ill-fit systems the environmental impact may be

nitrogen eutrophication. Nitrogen eutrophication is a process where algae dies, from surplus

nitrogen, in turn causing the bacteria to decompose the algae which consumes too much oxygen.

Oxygen-reliant organisms like Rhode Island shellfish will then proceed to die from lack of

oxygen, turning Rhode Island’s waters into a watery graveyard.

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Modern wastewater treatment systems which will replace the cesspit are sewer tie-ins,

conventional septic systems and advanced septic systems. Per URI’s description, conventional

septic systems are close to cesspits but a means of dispersion through a distribution box which

disperses waste evenly throughout outstretched complex mechanisms called drain fields which

lay under the property. The drainfields mechanisms disperse the waste to surrounding soils which

treats everything. The filtered water will find its way to larger bodies nearby, completing the

process. Advance treatment systems employ more mechanical and often electronic mechanisms

than conventional systems. Based on an input, effluent can be treated to remove or add specific

ingredients to the wastewater. Certain new mechanisms help in prevention of failure of the

advanced system that conventional systems would be susceptible due in harsh conditions. Finally

sewer tie-ins are simply systems that are connected to the local sewer. With sewer tie-ins costing

typically $2,000 to $4,000, and conventional septic systems typically being more than double,

the wastewater treatment system implemented boils down to what’s less costly and the

geographic probability of implementation.

Research Findings and Conclusions

Since the 2015 amendment of the Rhode Island Cesspool Act from 2007. Rhode Island

has still yet to drindle the number of public shoreline closings to consistently average miniscule

numbers. The closing of which resulted consequently from, (as stated previously), rising water

levels and the cesspool's proximity to surface waters. These rising water levels however do not

stem from global warming but instead Rhode Island’s New England weather. Heavy rains and
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the like,cause the surplus of water to soak into the soil and overflow the cesspits, causing deluges

of filthy water runoff leading to the nearby beaches and ponds.

Figure 1: Beach Closures by Year, source: https://health.ri.gov/data/beaches/

Downward trends in measurements from 2009 to 2016 are attributed to when the Narragansett

Bay Commissions began operation of the “Combined Sewer Overflow Abatement Program”

CSO for short. The program, which honors the tradition of upgrading the Providence area’s

waste treatment system, consisted of the construction of combined sewer and storm water

tunnels. These tunnels store any excess sewer and stormwater that they can allow during heavy

rains. The stored runoff and wastewater is then conducted to a wastewater treatment facility

before being jettisoned into the bay. Phase one of the renovations was finished in October 2008,

likely returning the dividends as seen in the chart’s downward trends from 2010 to the phase two
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implementation year of 2014. Phase two’s dividends show less effectual, albeit the project only

was only interconnecting the greater Providence metro area’s piping to lead to the phase one

constructed tunnels.

State Perspective Suburban Omission

Consistency in graph data possibly equates from the state government’s focus towards

renovation proving too careless towards suburban Rhode Island. Respect is still due to the

government and associating organizations for targeting Rhode Island’s source of mass

wastewater pollution, being the immediate Providence metropolis; however provincial Rhode

Island still remains a constant source of pollution. The state is aware of this oversight though,

and so provides districts not in the CSO project area an optional loan program for renovation of

their waste systems. The Community Septic System Loan Program (CSSLP), provides applicants

a $300 origination fee, outstanding balance based 1% annual servicing fee and a $25,000 max

budget on a term of up to ten years. Yet still, any comparable renovation to northeastern RI or

any renovation period isn't underway, or at least not publicly documented by most towns. For

example, the only outlying town to that observation is Charlestown, whose government’s website

provides detailed information on Charlestown’s approach to the Cesspool Act and it’s progress.
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Thanks to this information it can factually be said with concrete evidence that

Charlestown is the only town in all of RI that has eliminated “99.9%” of it’s cesspools as of

2016. Since all searches of any state or municipal funded projects reveal just as few results it

can be said that no significant heading is being made for cesspool removal. Enforcing the

statement that Rhode Islanders deals with ecological problems dependent on the higher

population, less populous zones receive insignificant coverage & assistance.

Figure 2: Town of Charlestown - Cesspool Phase Out Status as of February 2016 Source:
https://www.charlestownri.org/index.asp?SEC=57BE787A-1F23-406A-906B-4FBC5BCACF34
&DE=432905FD-B9CA-493E-90A5-6461DAF2AAF8

Methodology of the differences between Lower Income Regions & Urban Centers
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The year as of writing is 2020 and the current status of Rhode Island’s overall progress of

cesspool removal remains unknown. This postulates two theories. The first theory being that due

to lack of publication, most towns don’t make enough headway worthy to publish annual

progress reports. The second theory being that this lack of headway stems from the majority of

townspeople unaware of, or unable to afford cesspool replacements even with the state loan

option. Support for these theories is as follows. When the 07’ Cesspool Act passed there were

50,000 cesspools left in all of Rhode Island. This marked the beginning of the state loan program

as well. Charlestown’s cesspit eradication since the passing of the act took 10 years. But

cesspools removed by Charlestown only numbered to a meek 300. By the end of the 10 years the

gross total count had dropped to 25,000. During this decade the government implemented it’s

restructuring of the Providence metropolitan area.

This area can now be all but confirmed to be attributing most of the removals. The zone’s

housing density being virtually a mosh-pit of cesspools meant the COS delivered a major portion

of the replacements fast to meet deadlines.With little support from the state, the relatively slow

pace and small sum of removals which Charlestown progressed makes sense.

Conclusions

Affordability to each person is even more now a pivotal concern to the point the loan

program offered is inherently too costly per household. One solution perhaps can be the state, (as

mentioned countlessly), funding a project where contractors handle the matter on behalf of the

financially incapable private property owners free of the owners charge. Considering that the

price of metropolitan Rhode Island’s CSO first phase required $275 million, the principles of
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constructing new septic systems are standardized & relatively less venturous than the CSO

construction size , it would be reasonably ideal to keep the production cost under $275 million.

What’s more, citing the DEM FAQ article on the act, “the cost for a sewer tie-in - typical[ly]

ranges from $2,000 to $4,000”, while conventional septic tank implementation is “approximately

$10,000-$15,000” on average. Using basic math, total cost for replacing the latest estimate of

25,000 cesspools with average range would add to $250,000,000 to $375,000,000. That price

range isn't entirely acceptable by the ideals proposed, so what else is there? Augmentation to the

loan plan.

To meet their own cesspool act mandates, the government can still remove the hazards

free of charge, providing all of Rhode Island safer waters. However the construction of the septic

system itself can be covered by the loan. Lowering cost of the loan per individual to $17,500 at

max. And halving the cost of the budget ranges from $125,000,000 to $187,500,000. Costs can

shrink lower based on situation and sewer tie-ins, but data on the remaining residences

arrangements is unknown. Rhode Island has the ability to cease the pollution at the source for

good. The only cost is an upwards of $187,000,000 project. But with the state's history of related

project approval, a hypothetical solution such as this does not seem a pipe dream.
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Bibliography

BRWCT Strategic Planning Work Group & Colt, Ph.D., A. B. (2008, July). Bays, Rivers, and

Watersheds Systems-Level Plan: 2009-2013. Rhode Island Digital Archive.

https://sosri.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_7a1e716a-9642-4509-b26f-51c1df7

cec34/

Charlestown Government. (n.d.). Charlestown Cesspool Phase-out Program. Town of

Charlestown Rhode Island.

https://www.charlestownri.org/index.asp?SEC=57BE787A-1F23-406A-906B-4FBC5BC

ACF34&DE=432905FD-B9CA-493E-90A5-6461DAF2AAF8

Narragansett Bay Commision. (n.d.). History of Narragansett Bay and the NBC. Narragansett

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Narragansett Bay Commission. (n.d.). Summary of Water Quality in the Bay. Snapshot of Upper

Narragansett Bay. http://snapshot.narrabay.com/

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. (2015, September 1). Frequently

Asked Questions Cesspools and the Rhode Island Cesspool Act. DEM Rhode Island.

http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/water/permits/isds/pdfs/cessfaqs.pdf

Rhode Island General Assembly. (2015, January). AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND

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af9c0/
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Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank. (n.d.). Community Septic System Loan Program. Rhode Island

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University of Rhode Island. (n.d.). Advanced Treatment Systems. New England Onsite

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University of Rhode Island. (n.d.). The Drainfield. New England Onsite Wastewater Training

Program. https://web.uri.edu/owt/the-drainfield/