Artificial grass covers Gail Corvello’s backyard in Tiverton, where she operates a day care center. The covering is needed to shield visitors from the contaminated soil, caused by a utility company. The case helped spur state lawmakers to raise fines on companies that pollute.

Journal files / Mary Murphy

It looks like polluters will soon face much heavier fines in Rhode Island.

The so-called polluter fines bill passed unanimously in the House on Tuesday. It was passed by the Senate in February. And Governor Carcieri supports it, so his signature is expected soon.

The bill raises the maximum fine for accused polluters from $1,000 a day to $25,000.

The bill is a direct result of the controversy surrounding the pollution found in a Tiverton neighborhood several years ago. But it took three years to line up enough votes for passage. Two years ago the House passed the bill, but the Senate didn’t. Last year the Senate passed the bill, but the House didn’t.

The controversy began in 2002 when cyanide and other hazardous substances were found in the soils of about 100 houses in the northern end of town. State regulators believe the contaminants were wastes from the Fall River Gas Co., which processed coal into gas years ago.

State regulators blamed a utility company, Southern Union, which purchased the Fall River Gas Co. in 2000. The state cited Southern Union, but the maximum fine allowable for pollution in Rhode Island is $1,000 a day.

Southern Union has resisted cleaning up the pollution and it hired lobbyists to fight efforts to increase the fines, even though they could not be applied retroactively to the Tiverton case.

Last year, House leaders did not support a bill raising the fines. But this year, House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox visited the polluted neighborhood while environmental activists picketed the offices of Robert D. Goldberg, a lobbyist who represents Southern Union.

Fox apologized to homeowners for the legislature’s inaction last year. Then every member of the House supported the bill in last week’s vote.

Much credit has been given to Rep. Jan Malik, chair of the House Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources for his outspoken support for raising the fines.

“Until now, low fines have allowed the biggest polluters to ignore state orders for cleanup, and drag out litigation while families suffer and state resources are drained,” Laura Brion, a community organizer for Childhood Lead Action Project, said in a statement. “The General Assembly sent an important message to all Rhode Islanders: the health of our citizens comes first, and nobody in our state is above the law.”

The advocates also credited bill sponsors Sen. Walter Felag, D-Bristol, and Rep. Jay Edwards, D-Portsmouth, Fox, and House Speaker William Murphy.

The bill was backed by a wide array of environmental advocacy groups and residents from Tiverton.

plord@projo.com