In early March, nearly 100 protesters picketed outside the Island Park landfill in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in opposition to a proposed Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) allowing soil with high levels of arsenic to be used to cap the landfill site. Benzene, a known human carcinogen, is another toxin that residents fear may be present in high levels in the soil being brought in for the soil cap. Residents are concerned about the toxins not only for themselves but for the out-of-town visitors who frequent the nearby beach during the summer.
Residents are not actually opposed to capping the landfill with soil, but they want the soil used to be clean and free of toxic chemicals instead of raising arsenic levels from 7 to 40 PPM. The landfill owner originally proposed that the site be used as a volleyball and sports complex once the site is capped.