For my envirosearch I chose to investigate the issue of the Central Landfill. I chose to do the landfill specifically because it is a local hot-topic issue as there are many different views on whether or not it is environmentally sound as well as whether it is a smart idea to exist at all. I wanted to learn about a local issue which I had no real opinion on in order to formulate my own. In order to do this I used a number of different sources. My most important were undoubtedly my two interviews as they yielded enormous amounts of data as well as valuable opinions. The Internet also turned out to be an excellent place for research as it turned up a lot of data and raw numbers as well as yet another take on things. Every source put its own "spin" on the issue and since I looked at so many I was able to interpret both sides and thus formulate my own opinion and put my own "spin" on it. .
The Central Landfill is located in Johnston and is the biggest and most important in both economic as well as environmental factors and in practicality in all of Rhode Island. The Central landfill has gone through a number of different owners and phases to reach its current state today. In 1960s and 1970s the dump was largely unregulated. This continued until the early 1980s when the dump was acquired by the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, (RIRRC). However prior to the acquisition, the landfill was in a very bleak situation, which was severely impacting the environment as well as the many citizens living in the vicinity.
During the 1960s through 1970s the Central Landfill was nothing more than a relatively large hole dug into Johnston soil and then filled with trash. Frankly it wasn't even a landfill at that point it was simply, using the most negative connotations, a dump. Throughout the period in which there was no regulation there were approximately 1.5 million gallons of hazardous liquid chemicals dumped into the soil.
