In New England, the Industrial Cycle Comes Full Circle

The former Riverside Mills Property in Providence, R.I., is a time capsule of New England’s industrial history. In 1863, a firm known as Champlin & Downes built a four-story textile factory and a series of different mill operators used the building until 1937, when the factory shut its doors. For much of the remaining 20th century, the complex became a serious site for heavy industry users, including metal plating, polishing, machining, casting and soldering. In 1989, fire destroyed much of the historic complex. The day after the blaze, a site inspection by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management revealed that the soil was soaked in a witch’s brew of copper, brass, sodium cyanide, acid cleaners, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, trichloroethylene, lacquer thinner and waste oil. Investigators also discovered torn bags of asbestos and drums filled with plating sludge. Subsequent investigations disclosed four underground storage tanks, an underground concrete vault and a plume of petroleum and volatile organic compounds in the groundwater. ...

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