Pollution & Cleanup
What follows is a statewide screening of Superfund sites in Rhode Island, not a check on any one address. A site somewhere in the state implies nothing definite about a specific home. Rhode Island's compact footprint and long manufacturing, textile, and naval history shape where cleanup attention sits across the state rather than on a single block. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management partners with the EPA's federal program on these sites. Read this as the public record worth reviewing when evaluating an address, and as a prompt to look closely at one location rather than a conclusion about it.
For contaminated-site cleanup, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is the state-side partner to the federal EPA Superfund program and runs a state-level site-remediation program for properties outside the national list. Because Rhode Island set its own enforceable PFAS standard early, the state tends to fold those compounds into site cleanup decisions more readily than a federal-default state would. "Superfund" is a heavy word, especially in a small state where sites feel close, but it carries reassurance too: a named office, working with EPA, is on the hook for the work rather than letting it drift.
From EPA's National Priorities List, filtered to sites with confirmed PFAS contamination. EPA's broader Superfund/SEMS inventory is larger and includes non-PFAS and assessment-stage sites.
| Site | Type / status |
|---|---|
| Central Landfill | Private · NPL: Final |
| Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center | Federal · NPL: Final |
| Landfill & Resource Recovery, INC. (L&Rr) | Private · NPL: Final |
| Newport Naval Education & Training Center | Federal · NPL: Final |
| Picillo Farm | Private · NPL: Final |
| Rose Hill Regional Landfill | Private · NPL: Final |
| Stamina Mills | Private · NPL: Final |
| West Kingston Town Dump/Uri Disposal Area | Private · NPL: Final |
| Western Sand & Gravel | Private · NPL: Final |
Check Superfund sites near a specific Rhode Island address →
VetMyAddress maps nearby EPA Superfund/NPL sites and grades the address A–F alongside its water, PFAS, flood, and air data.
A statewide list shows where federal attention has landed; it is not a ruling on your future home, even in a state this small where everything feels nearby. Four things determine whether a listed site matters for a particular property, and the Rhode Island DEM's remediation work hinges on each: distance from the site, the kind of contamination and how it could move, how far the cleanup has progressed, and where the home gets its water. Together they tell you far more than a raw count. The federal cleanup vocabulary (NPL, SEMS, CERCLA) keeps its own dialect, and translating it is half the task.
If Rhode Island's PFAS-confirmed Superfund list comes back empty, that is good news but not a full all-clear. The DEM and EPA track a far broader inventory than the PFAS-confirmed subset shown here, and a home can still sit near other contamination. An empty PFAS list means only that none of the cataloged sites are presently flagged for those specific compounds, which is worth knowing rather than mistaking for a clean bill of health.
A site appearing on this page means EPA has confirmed PFAS contamination at a National Priorities List Superfund site somewhere in Rhode Island. It is a statewide screening list. It does not tell you the distance from any specific home, the exposure pathway, or whether the local drinking-water system is affected.
For a specific property, the things that actually matter are:
That address-level synthesis — nearest-site distance plus the home's full environmental profile in one A–F grade — is what the VetMyAddress report is for.
Superfund is a federal EPA program, with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) serving as the state-side partner. The DEM also runs a state-level site-remediation program for contaminated properties that fall outside the federal national list.
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management works alongside the federal EPA on Superfund sites and oversees state-level remediation of its own. Because Rhode Island set an enforceable PFAS standard early, it tends to factor those compounds into cleanup decisions more readily.
Rhode Island's manufacturing, textile, and naval history is reflected in its listed sites, and the count on this page is drawn live from federal records. A site somewhere in this compact state is not a verdict on any one home; distance, contamination type, and water source all matter.
Our curated EPA dataset lists 9 PFAS-confirmed Superfund (NPL) sites in Rhode Island, including Central Landfill, Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center, Landfill & Resource Recovery, INC. (L&Rr). EPA's full Superfund inventory (including non-PFAS and assessment-stage sites) is larger — a specific-address report checks all SEMS sites near the property.
Proximity is a starting point, not a verdict. Real-world impact depends on distance, the type of contamination, the exposure pathway (groundwater, soil, vapor), the home's water source, and the cleanup stage. A site two miles away marked 'construction complete' is very different from an active site next door.
Use VetMyAddress to see EPA Superfund/NPL sites near any Rhode Island address, bundled with the home's drinking water, PFAS, flood zone, and air-quality data in a single plain-English A–F grade. EPA's own ECHO database (echo.epa.gov) is the free, official source if you prefer to dig through the raw records.
It means PFAS ('forever chemicals') have been documented in the contamination at that National Priorities List site. PFAS is persistent and can migrate through groundwater, so a confirmed PFAS site is worth pairing with the home's drinking-water and PFAS data to understand the exposure pathway.