Less and Properly Managed Waste
To adequately protect public health and the environment from hazardous waste contamination, U.S. EPA and states implement the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the national framework of solid waste control. States employ various metrics to illustrate how waste is managed and whether facilities are complying with regulations.
Brownfield Cleanups Since xxxx
As a result of Rhode Island's efforts, xxxx acres of contaminated land have been made available for reuse!
A brownfield is a property whose expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, removes development pressures from undeveloped land, and protects the environment.
For the purposes of ECOS Results, individual states had discretion with regard to whether they show both their state and U.S. EPA-led cleanups. States and EPA may have different definitions of “Acres Ready for Reuse.”
Cleanups Completed
Acres ready for reuse
Brownfield Cleanups in Rhode Island
Facilities Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) protects communities and promotes resource conservation through safe management and cleanup of solid and hazardous waste, and encouragement of source reduction and beneficial use. Learn more about RCRA.
% of Underground Storage Tank Facilities in Significant Operational Compliance Over Time (RCRA Subtitle I)
An underground storage tank system (UST) is a tank and any underground piping connected to the tank that has at least ten percent of its combined volume underground. USTs may contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans. U.S. EPA and states collaborate with industry to protect the public health and the environment from potential releases.
States and EPA are in the process of implementing new UST standards, which may have an effect on compliance rates.
Water Clean and Available for All Uses
U.S. EPA and states have made significant progress in improving water quality since enactment of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) decades ago. Challenges remain, however, in areas like maintaining infrastructure and limiting nutrient pollution. States have different means of assessing water quality, but all report on water quality by measuring the concentration of pollutants and sedimentation from point (direct) and nonpoint (indirect) sources. Water infrastructure funding and compliance with state and federal regulations are primary factors in improving the health of waterbodies. Learn more.
Point Source Water Pollution
Percent of Major Wastewater Dischargers without Significant Noncompliance
Wastewater discharges from industrial and commercial sources may contain pollutants at levels that could adversely affect the quality of receiving waters or interfere with publicly owned treatment works that receive those discharges.
