Rhode Island

H

Conservation

Rhode Island’s environmental protection activities are handled by the department of environmental management, which is also responsible for parks, natural resource protection, fish and wildlife, and agricultural programs. Many of the department’s activities are aimed at protecting the remaining open space in the state. For example, the state has a forestry program, a shorelands protection program, and a wetlands management program.

Progress was being made in efforts to reduce pollution; in the period 1995–2000, the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the environment was reduced by 65 percent.

H

1

Air Quality

Rhode Island’s air quality is generally good. Except for four days in which levels of ozone exceeded federal standards, in 1995 all five counties in Rhode Island met federal goals. The state has devoted much effort to regulating the emission of toxic air pollutants from industries.

H

2

Waste Management

Rhode Island’s hazardous waste management laws predate those of the federal government and are generally more stringent. Most of Rhode Island’s hazardous waste is shipped to other states for disposal. In 2006 the state had 12 hazardous waste sites on a federal priority list for cleanup because of their severity or proximity to people. Rhode Island has a large state-owned solid waste landfill. The state devotes much effort to such solid waste problems as landfill capacity, resource recovery, and recycling. Of the 39 municipalities, all have a recycling program, nearly all of which require mandatory participation.

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3

Water Quality

Water management is important because of the state’s high concentration of people near its wetlands and shoreline. Pollutants such as those from sewage treatment plants remain a problem in some parts of the state. Improvements are being made, the most significant being a reconstruction of the state’s largest sewage treatment plant, located in Providence. Heavy rains cause combined sewage and stormwater runoff systems in metropolitan Providence to overwhelm treatment facilities, resulting in inadequately treated effluent entering Narragansett Bay. Overall, significant improvements are being made in the quality of both freshwater and saltwater in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is faced with an increasing number of applications to construct on its remaining wetlands. The state is one of very few to coordinate its wetlands permit program with the “dredge and fill” permit program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. This coordination helps protect the wetlands from development.

III

Economic Activities

Shipbuilding and commerce became major occupations toward the end of the 17th century. From then until the American Revolution (1775-1783) the colony profited from a prosperous triangular trade in rum, sugar and molasses, and slaves. Following the decline of the triangular trade after the American Revolution, whaling and the manufacture of spermaceti candles from sperm oil, which is from the head and blubber of the sperm whale, became major economic activities. Rhode Island merchants became active in China and other parts of East Asia. However, whaling and commerce gradually declined after 1790, and Rhode Island began to concentrate instead on manufacturing industries.

Rhode Island was one of the first states to industrialize. Because Samuel Slater built the first successful American cotton mill in the state in 1793, Rhode Island is sometimes referred to as the cradle of the American factory system. Several of the major industries of present-day Rhode Island, including metalworking, textile manufacturing, and the manufacture of costume jewelry, date back to before 1800.

Rhode Island had a work force of 577,000 in 2006. Representing 40 percent of the state’s employment, the service industries constituted the largest job sector. The category includes a wide variety of work, ranging from office jobs to auto repair. Retail or wholesale trade employed 20 percent of the job holders; 16 percent work in manufacturing; 13 in federal, state, or local government, including those people in the military; 37 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 4 percent in construction; 4 percent in transportation or public utilities; and 1 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing. Mining employment is insignificant. In 2005, 16 percent of Rhode Island’s workers were members of a labor union. The state has one of the nation’s few unionized work forces that increased in size during the 1990s.

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