Process Notes about the QDC Biosolids Proposal

We hope all NK citizens will get involved in this issue by staying up to date on what’s happen- ing, attending and speaking up at Town Council and other related meetings, and writing to your State Representatives and Senators, as well as the Governor, to let them know how you feel about the Quonset Biosolids facility proposed for our town.

We offer here some notes about the Quonset Development Corporation (QDC) and their pro- cess, in the hope these may be useful.

1. By their own words,the decision of QDC to approve the proposed biosolids project at Quonset exceeds its statutory authority. The QDC April 16th letter to the governor states that,

“[t]he need for this project is much larger than Quonset or North Kingstown. The proposal must be viewed the broader context of a near term crisis for Rhode Island...The looming closure of the Woonsocket incinerator makes this crisis even more acute.”

However, according to RI Law, the corporation is authorized and created “as real estate de- velopment and management company,” (§42-64.10-2). “To. . . create high value added jobs in Rhode Island. To foster and maintain effective working relations with its host and surround- ing communities.” (§42-64.10-10.3). There is no statutory authority to solve challenges related to sewage waste.

2. By their own words the QDC decision to approve the proposed biosolids project is not con- sistent with its mission statement, which reads: “QDC develops and manages the Quonset Business Park...in the best interests of the citizens of Rhode Island to attract and retain successful businesses that provide diverse employment opportunities.”

The mission of QDC is to “attract and retain successful businesses that provide diverse em- ployment opportunities,” not solve the state’s sewage or any other crises of the state.

3. By their own actions, Quonset tried to conceal this project from the public.

a. No notice was provided to any abutter.

b. No notice was provided to more than 100 residential units of Crossroads North Kingstown.

c. In addition, this proposed facility is less than a mile from a school and less than 2 miles from 2 other schools.

d. Quonset’s 2025 annual report is 72 pages long. It provides a comprehensive list of all existing and future projects except one—the proposed biosolids sewage sludge facility. Every single project except the sewage sludge facility!

What is just as egregious is that the state department of environmental management does not plan to hold any hearings for the 3 permits it will be issuing. In addition the federal EPA is not going to get involved at all with this project.

4. By their own words, the QDC agenda that approved this project violates the Open Meetings Act. According to the RI Open Meeting Act, an agenda item must be described with suf- ficient specificity to reasonably inform the public of the business to be discussed or acted upon. (§42-46-6).

According to a copy of the agenda item that Quonset provides in its April 16, 2026 there is no mention of this proposed facility on the agenda for November 19, 2024. It only said, “Approval of Ground Lease to Global Solutions, LLC.” Nothing more, and certainly noth- ing about the proposed biosolids facility. According to Quonset the only information on the proposed project was contained in a 7 page “board book” provided to the public at the meeting.

The information became available to the public during the meeting and afterwards, a clear violation of the intent as well as the language of the Open Meetings Act. A demonstration of the inadequacy of notice is that not a single person from the public testified at this meet- ing, whereas, once the proposal was made public, over 400 people came to a town council meeting on the same subject. Is it reasonable to think that none of those people would have shown up to speak at the QDC meeting had they known about it?