RI lawmakers look for solution in a small state with a big problem: nowhere to send sludge

By: Nancy Lavin

Outlets: Rhode Island Current

Published: February 25, 2026

Words: 1,077

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 1 day ago

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Every toilet flush in Janine Burke-Wells’ West Warwick home sends her family’s sewage on a 670-mile journey.

Its first stop: the West Warwick Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility, where clarifying equipment separates out clean water to be discharged into the Pawtuxet River. The remaining solid waste byproduct, called sludge, is trucked to Westborough, Massachusetts, then shipped on a railway car to a landfill in New Lexington, Ohio, 45 miles southeast of Columbus.

It’s a complicated and …

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