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Rhode Island

Waste Facilities Management Program

Agency Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
ASTM search distance 0.5 mile

The Waste Facilities Management Program of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) regulates companies that transport or receive solid, hazardous, septage or medical waste, and oversees the closure of active and inactive landfills. It sits in DEM's Office of Land Revitalization and Sustainable Materials Management.

In a Phase I ESA

This handbook pairs DEM's waste facility lists with the state landfill and solid waste disposal site records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The pairing is this handbook's reading: the lists also hold medical and hazardous waste facilities, and closed landfills are on the Landfill Closure Program's list. The general reading of a landfill listing is on the landfills and solid waste page.

What the record shows

DEM's Site Inventories page posts two lists from the program, and a site missing from the first may be on the second.

List What DEM says it lists
Active Waste Facility Management Sites in RI Sites permitted to receive, process, treat, temporarily store or dispose of regulated waste (solid, medical or hazardous)
All Active/Inactive Waste Management Facilities The same sites plus formerly permitted sites, other than closed landfills

DEM explains the status words on these lists:

Status DEM's explanation
Active Currently permitted
Active Exp. License Permit has not been renewed but site is operating under existing license
Closed No longer active operations at the site
Revoked Licensed was revoked by the Department
Expired Licensed expired for this activity (other activities may still be continuing)
Proposed The Department has received, at some time, an application to operate a facility

Read a Proposed entry as an application, and check the file for whether a facility was built. Read an Expired entry as one activity, since DEM says others may continue.

The solid waste rules DEM lists run from 250-RICR-140-05-1 to 250-RICR-140-05-8. Besides landfills, they cover transfer stations, incinerators, waste tire storage, petroleum contaminated soil processing, construction and demolition debris processing, and organic waste recycling. DEM says it does not require companies to obtain a license to haul solid waste, but does require transporters of hazardous, medical and septage waste to be licensed.

Where to look a site up

  • Both lists are posted as PDF and Excel files on DEM's Site Inventories page. This handbook did not open the files. DEM says its site lists are current as of the date indicated and may change frequently.
  • The program's pages also link a PDF of licensed solid waste management facilities, which this handbook did not open.
  • DEM says questions or complaints about permitted solid waste management facilities go to its Office of Waste Management at 401-222-2797, and complaints about illegal disposal or mismanagement of solid waste go to the Office of Compliance and Inspection at 401-222-1360.

Getting the file

DEM's File Reviews page lists Waste (National Priorities List and landfills) among the areas it coordinates, and says reviews are coordinated for areas "such as" those it lists; it does not name waste facility licenses separately. The Site Inventories page links the same route to request more information or arrange a file review; see DEM File Reviews. Submit DEM's Request to Inspect and/or Copy Public Records form. DEM says file reviews are scheduled within 10 business days after the request is received, and gives the mailbox Dem.filereview@dem.ri.gov to schedule one.

Sources

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management pages, read October 13, 2026:

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