Navy to Pay $1.4 Million for Damage to R.I. Natural Resources

The U.S. Navy has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle two lawsuits brought by the state of Rhode Island over natural-resource damage at a Superfund site in North Kingstown.

According to a statement by Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch, the lawsuits were the first of their kind filed by a state against the Navy under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

The lawsuits sought to recover monetary damages for the Navy's disposal of hazardous waste at the Allen Harbor landfill and Calf Pasture Point. Those sites were formerly owned by the Navy and are located at the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center in North Kingstown.

According to the consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the Navy's disposal of hazardous waste caused damages to groundwater, wetlands and shellfish. The waste included paint thinners, solvents, asbestos and sewage sludge.

The Davisville battalion center was placed on the Superfund list in 1989.

Lynch said that because the Navy dumped 3 million gallons of hazardous waste at the Allen Harbor landfill, the state lost the use of Allen Harbor as a shellfishery.

Both the Allen Harbor and the Calf Pasture sites were owned by the Navy from 1939 until 2001, when the properties were transferred to the town of North Kingstown.

According to Lynch's statement, the money recovered in the settlement must be used to replace, restore or acquire an equivalent lost resource.