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GoLocalProv | News | Neronha Lashes Out at DEM, McKee, and GoLocal When Questioned About Lack of Enviro Enforcement

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GoLocalProv | News | Neronha Lashes Out at DEM, McKee, and GoLocal When Questioned About Lack of Enviro Enforcement


Sunday, March 12, 2023

 

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RI Lawyer Normal Peter Neronha. PHOTO: GoLocal

Twice up to now 12 months, the Woonsocket Wastewater Facility has discharged untreated waste into the Blackstone River. The primary time in June of 2022 compelled the closure of the river, and now there’s an ongoing discharge of improperly handled waste once more. 

No enforcement motion has been taken by the Rhode Island Division of Environmental Administration or Rhode Island Lawyer Normal Peter Neronha.

On Thursday, Save the Bay known as for enforcement motion.

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“These discharges of sewage into the Blackstone are unacceptable. They’re an insult to the river and everybody who makes use of it and relies on it,” mentioned Save the Bay’s Kate McPherson, the Narragansett Bay Riverkeeper.

“They’re additionally a violation of the Clear Water Act. Clearly, one thing could be very flawed with operations on the Woonsocket facility,” mentioned McPherson.

 

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Neither the discharge into the Blackstone in June of 2022 nor the continued discharges have confronted any enforcement motion by DEM or Neronha. PHOTO: File

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Neronha Lashes Out

Friday, GoLocal requested Neronha — Rhode Island’s high regulation enforcement official—  why his workplace had didn’t take enforcement motion on the discharges into the Blackstone over the previous 9 months.

Each Neronha and his workplace, in a sequence of emails, lashed out.

“Actually? Which former AG has ever introduced a Clear Water Act case, because the Lawyer Normal did when he was US Lawyer, or has matched this administration’s environmental enforcement report, which environmental teams have acknowledged throughout the state. The premise of your query is outlandish,” mentioned Neronha’s spokesman Brian Hodge.

GoLocal supplied quite a lot of examples when former earlier Rhode Island Lawyer Generals sought enforcement of the Clear Water Act, together with when then-Rhode Island Lawyer Normal Sheldon Whitehouse took motion. Sheldon Whitehouse, Lawyer Normal, State of Rhode Island, and Jan Reitsma, Director of the Rhode Island Division of Environmental Administration, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. David Laroche, et al., Defendants, Appellees, (1st Cir. 2002)

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GoLocal then cited when Neronha’s predecessor Peter Kilmartin had been energetic towards upstream discharges on the Blackstone. In 2012, GoLocal reported that “Citing harm to Narragansett Bay, Lawyer Normal Peter F. Kilmartin, is asking the Rhode Island congressional delegation to face agency towards a bid by a Massachusetts official to forestall limits on how a lot nitrogen and phosphorous a wastewater-treatment plant close to Worcester is allowed to discharge into the Blackstone River.”

GoLocal supplied to offer Neronha’s workplace with different examples of Rhode Island Lawyer Generals taking motion to implement the Clear Water Act.

 

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Governor Dan McKee PHOTO: GoLocal

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Neronha Criticizes DEM and McKee

Neronha then criticized the McKee administration and the Rhode Island Division of Environmental Administration (DEM). Neronha mentioned his workplace couldn’t take motion as a result of DEM regulators had didn’t do their job.

“The very fact is that clear water act instances are primarily based on in-the-field investigations by environmental enforcement companies, that’s, DEM and EPA, and administrative actions by these companies, together with the issuance of notices of violation within the first occasion.  The Workplace can not take motion till these investigations are full.  We proceed to encourage these companies to take the required and applicable investigatory steps.  You need to direct questions concerning the progress of these steps to these companies or the Workplace of the Governor, to whom DEM reviews,” mentioned Neronha’s workplace in an electronic mail to GoLocal.

 

Questions About Neronha’s Environmental File

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GoLocal, over the previous few years, has printed quite a lot of reviews elevating questions on Neronha’s environmental report.

One article outlined intimately his report for Neronha’s first two years as Lawyer Normal — and, particularly about his enforcement report.

In his first almost two years in workplace because the state’s chief regulation enforcement official, there was little emphasis on pursuing environmental crimes.

Within the first 20 months in workplace, Neronha issued 139 press releases and only one was associated to environmental enforcement. 

The press launch claimed that his workplace had levied a report penalty, however the majority of the nice was waived as a part of the settlement — now not making it a report penalty.

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Neronha as U.S. Lawyer, environmental enforcement plummeted in the course of the Neronha period. Below Neronha between 2013 and 2018, his workplace issued greater than 820 press releases, and simply two handled the surroundings.  One of many bulletins regarded a 20+-year-old Superfund case and the opposite was a settlement settlement by U.S. Environmental Safety Company towards RIDOT.

Neronha has additionally despatched out a sequence of releases a couple of settlement with a sequence of petroleum corporations tied to the leakage MBTE contaminating consuming water in Pascoag. The leakage started in 2001, and the state’s lawsuit was filed in 2012. 

 

Fewer Enforcement Actions — and Penalties Collected

From 2015 to 2019, RIDEM issued simply $4,519,831 in penalties for unlawful disposal of hazardous and strong waste, water air pollution and/or air pollution violations — however these penalties had been riddled down to only $1,189,575 in collected fines.

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Save the Bay, Rhode Island’s main environmental group, informed GoLocal on the time, “The absence of enforcement not solely compromises the surroundings, but it surely additionally represents a breakdown within the effort to discourage future violations. Delayed or weak enforcement additionally regularly leads to settlements that, ultimately, don’t absolutely shield the useful resource that was degraded by the unique violation. Defending Narragansett Bay, the water we drink and the air we breathe requires vigorous, well timed enforcement.”

“In latest many years, now we have noticed a major lower within the funding and assets allotted to DEM. The division has lowered each the variety of formal enforcement actions and the frequency and quantity of penalties related to violating the legal guidelines that shield our pure assets and public well being. Typically talking, diminished and delayed enforcement has severe penalties,” Save the Bay informed GoLocal in 2020.

 

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Neronha interviewed by GoLocal’s Josh Fenton Aug, 2022

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Neronha Laches Out at GoLocal

On Friday, Neronha mentioned in an electronic mail to GoLocal in response to questions concerning the lack of motion towards these answerable for the discharges into The Blackstone River, “Mr. Fenton’s questions and responses display but once more that he’s an uninformed and unprincipled participant within the media market.  Irrespective of what number of slanted and important articles he writes, I’ll by no means accede to his requests that my marketing campaign promote together with his web site.” 

GoLocal has not accepted political promoting up to now two election cycles — 2020 nor 2022.

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Dumping within the Olneyville neighborhood first unveiled by GoLocal in September of 2020 PHOTO: GoLocal

“The Lawyer Normal appears to be very thin-skinned about his environmental report, and particularly his failure in defending folks in poor and minority areas,” mentioned Fenton, CEO of GoLocal. “Neronha is vigilant on litigating on points regarding Block Island however appears sluggish to maneuver and wishes loads of encouragement to take enforcement actions in areas like Olneyville the place the 6/10 dumping befell or in defending water high quality in locations like Woonsocket.” 

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Neronha did take motion on the 6/10 dumping after U.S. Lawyer Zachary Cunha entered right into a non-prosecution settlement — and a pair of.5 years after GoLocal first reported the alleged crimes.

GoLocal first broke the story of the dumping within the state’s poorest neighborhood in September of 2020.

Satirically, GoLocal endorsed Neronha in 2022. — READ HERE.

“We’re all adults. Neronha may strive implementing legal guidelines fairly than criticizing partnership companies just like the DEM and the media. Hopefully, he’ll take applicable actions to carry these answerable for polluting our waterways accountable,” added Fenton.

 

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Rhode Island

Four found dead at house in West Greenwich, RI – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

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Four found dead at house in West Greenwich, RI – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News


WEST GREENWICH, R.I. (WHDH) – An investigation is underway after four people were found dead inside a home in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Friday. 

Officials say a co-worker of someone who lived at the house called police after the person didn’t show up to work for two days. 

Police say all appeared to have gunshot wounds.

(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Rhode Island

Among US cities, Providence had fewest homes linger on the real estate market in November, Redfin says – The Boston Globe

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Among US cities, Providence had fewest homes linger on the real estate market in November, Redfin says – The Boston Globe


Nationally, over half, or 54.5 percent of home listings in November, lingered on the market for at least 60 days, up from 49.9 percent from the same time last year, Redfin reported. The total was the highest for any November since 2019.

Milwaukee, Wis., followed Providence at 38.8 percent, with Montgomery County, Penn., in third at 41.4 percent, according to the report released Monday.

Miami saw the highest percentage of “stale” listings, with 63.8 percent remaining on the market after 60 days, followed by Austin, Texas, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The only New England city besides Providence included in the top 50 most populated metropolitan areas is Boston, which saw a rate of 44.2 percent.

“A lot of listings on the market are either stale or uninhabitable,” Meme Loggins, a Redfin real estate agent in Oregon, said in the report. “There’s a lot of inventory, but it doesn’t feel like enough.”

So what’s different about Providence?

There are a number of factors in play, including demand for rental properties, according to Alysandra Nemeth, a local Redfin real estate agent.

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Nemeth told the Globe on Friday several multifamily homes she sold in the last few months moved quickly.

“If you have a multifamily [listing] that comes up and you’ve got an investor or someone that’s looking to owner-occupy a property and rent some out … it’s the perfect scenario because there’s no shortage of people that are looking to rent within the area,” Nemeth said.

Nemeth thinks the lack of inventory in the Rhode Island market is also keeping listings fresh.

Data released by the Rhode Island Association of Realtors in December showed there was a less than two months worth of supply of single-family homes across the state — well below the six-month supply level considered indicative of a healthy real estate market.

Driven, in part, by the competition for properties, the median statewide home price soared more than 11 percent year over year to $480,000, according to the association.

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“It just continues to be a battle where, you know, if a good home comes on the market and it’s priced right, it’s probably going to go quicker, and entertain more offers than some other areas,” Nemeth said.

Providence’s location is also desirable for buyers, Nemeth said. There’s easy access to Boston and New York City, all with a considerably lower price point than those metro areas, Nemeth said.

And Providence has plenty of appeal of its own, too.

“There’s just a lot of, like, great culinary experiences in Providence — like the food here is amazing,” Nemeth said. “So that also goes hand in hand with it. There’s a lot going on. This city is probably like the next city to watch out for.”


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Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.





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The 6 biggest business news stories to watch in Rhode Island in 2025 – The Boston Globe

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The 6 biggest business news stories to watch in Rhode Island in 2025 – The Boston Globe


Here are the biggest business news stories to watch in Rhode Island in 2026.

1. Will Hasbro leave Rhode Island for Boston?

Hasbro Inc. has been teasing Rhode Island’s leaders in mulling a move to Boston, and officials are tossing out all sorts of ideas — tax credits, an annual “Rhode Island Hasbro Day,” special access to airport lounges, subsidies for on-site child care — to see what might keep the century-old toy company anchored in its home state.

State leaders pitched Hasbro earlier this winter on six potential locations in three cities where Hasbro could relocate. But in that same meeting, leaders from Rhode Island Commerce and Governor Dan McKee’s office also pitched a series of incentives for the maker of Monopoly, My Little Pony, and Nerf, according to a report and videos released to the Globe on Monday in response to a public records request.

Hasbro spokespeople maintain that they have “no updates” on any potential relocation, but CEO Chris Cocks told employees in late 2024 that they would hear from the company’s leadership team sometime in the first quarter of 2025 about whether they’d be heading for greener pastures beyond Rhode Island.

Antonio Afonso, McKee’s chief of staff and the state’s “point person” on Hasbro, declined to be interviewed.

The Vanderbilt hotel in Newport, R.I. was once a mansion built in the early 1900s.Auberge Resorts Collection

2. The company buying up Newport restaurants

In Newport, there’s one man who seems to be everywhere: Nicholas S. Schorsch.

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A wealthy entrepreneur and investor, Schorsch has been on roll with his Heritage Restaurant Group since relocating to Newport from New York City 12 years ago, and has amassed a growing portfolio.

In 2024 alone, the group acquired restaurants Caleb & Broad, Flo’s Clam Shack, The Reef, The Red Parrot, The Brick Alley Pub, and many more. In late December, the group also announced it would acquire the historic Vanderbilt hotel, a Georgian Revival mansion. It’s not yet clear what the Heritage group paid for the hotel, but the transaction is expected to close in early 2025.

The group also operates Newport Craft Brewing, La Forge Casino Restaurant, La Costa Lobster Rolls and Tacos, Cluck Truck, Cluck House, A Mano Pizza & Gelato, Wiener Wagon, and Wally’s Wieners. It also owns Newport Lobster Company, one of the largest seafood wholesalers in the area, and runs concessions at Easton’s Beach.

Many of the restaurants Schorsch has acquired were family-run operations where the owners were nearing retirement age. His purchase, some say, was a lifeline so they could step away from their businesses. But critics are concerned about the powerhouse the group is becoming, saying that much control over businesses on Aquidneck Island could raise prices and stifle competition.

3. The expansion of Brown University Health

Rhode Island’s largest health care system, Brown University Health, previously known as Lifespan Corp., acquired St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton from bankrupt Steward Health Care for $175 million in 2024. This year, the hospital owner plans to expand in Foxborough, Mass., by bolstering two outpatient clinics it purchased from Steward that could generate $43 million annually by fiscal year 2027. The clinics could be an opportunity, officials told investors in December, to expand cancer care and ambulatory surgery into Massachusetts. They also plan to broaden their specialty physician groups.

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Demolition on the Washington Bridge in Providence, R.I.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

4. Continued fallout from the Washington Bridge closure

The Washington Bridge westbound on Interstate 195 abruptly closed more than a year ago, leaving drivers scrambling, and a long list of questions about went went wrong. The bridge — meant to last at least two more decades — needs to be demolished and rebuilt. Demolition is expected to take another year, and there is no timeline currently for when a new span will be completed. Chicago-based Walsh Construction Company will compete with a joint venture of American Bridge Company from Pennsylvania and New York-based MLJ Contracting Corp. to build the new bridge.

The state has sued 13 companies who were previously hired by the state to inspect the bridge, or do construction or design work. Several defendants have already pushed back on the suit, calling it a political “blame game.” A judge is expected to consider their motions to dismiss the lawsuit this month.

5. More shakeups at the state Housing Department

On New Year’s Eve, Tara Booker, the executive director of homelessness response for the R.I. Department of Housing, submitted her resignation. In a phone conversation with the Globe, Booker declined to comment as to why she would leave, and said she would remain at her post “through at least Jan. 31, and potentially longer.”

“I have a transition plan,” said Booker. “I don’t really want to comment on anything right now. I’m still working and want a productive transition.”

Booker also declined to comment on any winter shelter plans, which is a program she has overseen at the department since she was hired in March 2024. She is one of several of the department’s high-ranking leaders who have given their notice in the last year. Over the summer, former secretary Stefan I. Pryor resigned. Under his leadership, the department faced internal struggles and incomplete projects, and was circumventing procurement rules that may have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, the Globe reported. In November, after less than a year on the job, deputy housing secretary Deborah Flannery resigned.

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Leaders in the General Assembly, including Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, said they have been “disappointed” in the department’s former leadership. In late November, agency consultant Deborah Goddard was appointed by Governor Dan McKee as the department’s fourth housing secretary since it was created in 2022. Her appointment will need the Senate’s approval.

Like her predecessors, Goddard will face a housing crisis that has been worsening for more than 30 years, developers who may want to build affordable housing but are facing red tape, and inflation.

Work at the “Superman” building in Downtown Providence has been limited.Lane Turner/Globe Staff

6. A funding request from the ‘Superman’ building developer

It’s been two years since the state unveiled plans to redevelop the long-vacant “Superman” building in downtown Providence ― the tallest building in the state ― into apartments with room for commercial space. It was seen as a major win for the McKee administration, but not much has been done since. When asked if the idea of redeveloping 111 Westminster St. from office space into 285 residential units was dead, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said, “They’re hanging on by their fingernails.”

“They want money,” Ruggerio told the Globe. “The problem is, they never told us how much.”

In August, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley told the Globe that the owner of the Industrial National Bank Building is asking for more than $10 million in additional support to convert the 26-story skyscraper into apartments, but wouldn’t say exactly how much.

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Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.





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