Alton is a small village of about 250 residents within the town of
Richmond, Rhode Island
Richmond is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island. The population was 8,020 at the 2020 census. It contains the villages of Alton, Arcadia, Barberville, Carolina, Hillsdale, Kenyon, Shannock, Tug Hollow, Usquepaug, Wood River Junction, ...
. It is located about one hour south of
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
, the state's capital. The village is primarily residential, with no retail stores. Alton is located at a crossing of the
Wood River Wood River may refer to:
Rivers In Canada
* Wood River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Columbia River via Kinbasket Lake
* Wood River (Saskatchewan), a river in south-west Saskatchewan
In Ireland
* Wood River (County Clare), Kilru ...
and is 5 miles from the
Pawcatuck River
The Pawcatuck River is a river in the US states of Rhode Island and Connecticut flowing approximately .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 There are eight d ...
.
Local pollution
A major employer in the town was Charbert mill, a fabric
dye
A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution and ...
factory located in the center of town. Charbert mill was a division of Narrow Fabrics of America. Though the building still stands, it has been closed for many years.
Residents of Alton have complained about Charbert polluting their air and water since 1978, when a rotten egg smell (
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The under ...
) was first perceived. This is primarily due to Charbert's five open-air, unlined lagoons used to treat its wastewater from factory production. As a result, toxins present in the wastewater have seeped into the
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
, which all residents use for drinking water, and into the air that local residents breathe.
Nineteen homes in Alton had their water tested in 2004 by the Department of Health. Charbert paid for these tests, which considered the levels of 63 different VOCs (
volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapour pressure at room temperature. High vapor pressure correlates with a low boiling point, which relates to the number of the sample's molecules in the surrounding air, a ...
) and MTBE (
methyl tert-butyl ether
Methyl ''tertiary''-butyl ether (MTBE), also known as methyl tert-butyl ether and ''tert''-butyl methyl ether, is an organic compound with a structural formula (CH3)3COCH3. MTBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is sparingly sol ...
) in the drinking water supply. (Each home has its own private well; there is no public water system.) Three homes were placed on a bottled water supply in response to the test results because their MTBE levels were above health advisory levels.
[Katie Mulvaney, "MTBE found in wells near Charbert mill", '']The Providence Journal
''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...
'', 12/17/03 The drinking water supply in four homes on River street that directly face the Charbert factory is tested on a quarterly basis; the other homes have not had their water tested again since 2004.
See also
*
References
External links
Town of Richmond official website
{{Authority control
Providence metropolitan area
Villages in Rhode Island
Villages in Washington County, Rhode Island