NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The subsidiary of a renewable energy developer is causing a stink among residents for proposing to build a new sludge incinerator in West Davisville.

QSS Biosolids LLC is proposing to build a pyrolysis facility on All American Way, with the intention to take some of the sludge already being incarcerated in Woonsocket.

According to the project’s technical review, the facility, which would consist of two identical pyrolysis reactors, would have the capacity to incinerate up to 158.7 tons of sewage sludge daily. The site would also include two air pollution control systems and an odor control plant to handle any odors produced by the facility.

Construction is proposed to begin as early as next year, with a completion date in spring 2028. Once completed the facility would accept truck shipments of sludge 12 hours a day Monday through Friday. The plant itself is expected to operate 24/7.

The project would be owned and operated by a subsidiary of Green Development LLC, a firm that is more well known for its ground-mounted solar arrays and onshore wind turbines. An affiliated company, Quonset Soil Solutions, already operates a pyrolysis facility on Cross Park Avenue that turns wood chips into biochar.

In its technical review of the project, SAGE Environmental, a Providence-based environment consulting company, noted the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t consider pyrolysis to be incineration, much to the chagrin of residents.

“Pyrolysis is the thermochemical decomposition of organic material through the application of heat without oxygen,” wrote the consultants in their report. “Because no oxygen is present, the feedstock material does not combust but instead the chemical compounds that make up the feedstock material thermally decompose into combustible gases and biochar.”

Pyrolysis as a waste disposal process has come under fire, no pun intended, in recent years. Critics contend, despite the technical definition, the char, liquid, or gas produced by such facilities still results in greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and possible groundwater contamination.

The All American Way facility is estimated to produce 87,017 tons of carbon dioxide in controlled emissions annually, and smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, methane, and other forms of air pollution, according to the project’s Department of Environmental Management permit application.

A proposal from MedRecycler Inc. for a West Warwick facility to destroy medical waste was denied an application by DEM in 2021 after years of public outcry. In recent years, proposals to exempt such facilities from solid waste regulations, in support of plastic pyrolysis, have drawn similar protest.

In January, QSS Biosolids received a sign-off for a minor air permit from DEM.

Public outcry has already start coalescing against the new facility, and against Quonset Business Park. Opponents of the project spent more than an hour at the start of a recent Town Council meeting airing grievances against Quonset and some of their business tenants. Multiple tenants produce foul odors via their industrial processes, ruining the quality of life for nearby residents, and likely their property values, according to those who spoke.

John Dower, a resident of Reynolds Farm, a subdivision close to the proposed pyrolysis facility, told the Town Council he lived closest to some of the smelliest facilities sited in West Davisville.

“For the last six years, I can go out in the springtime and smell asphalt on the back deck of my house,” he said. “The current plant there has odors for the entire time period, and I was never told about it.”

The proposed pyrolysis facility isn’t the only bad neighbor, according to residents. In recent years, before the pyrolysis facility became more widely known, Bitumar USA Inc. was the main focus of a series of odor complaints from North Kingstown residents. The company owns and operates a 6-acre rail-to-truck transfer facility for liquid asphalt and other related products.

Quonset Development Corporation, the quasi-public state agency that manages the industrial park that is Quonset, has received multiple complaints from residents about the odors over the last two years, as has DEM.

Sharon Daniels, a resident of Old Baptist Road, told the council she heard nothing about the Bitumar asphalt plant when it was first proposed, until she started smelling asphalt.

“There’s maybe one or two days a week, where at night, I wake up and I smell asphalt. It’s really strong, and it’s through my windows,” Daniels said. “In the winter, I smell it. It’s terrible. I have a pool. We enjoy going outside in the summer and I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Oh my god, what is it going to be in the summer? What if I want to have a cookout, a party? I’m going to smell rotten eggs outside.’”

Rhode Island is going to need an alternative to its sludge situation. The Providence Journal reported earlier this year that the Woonsocket bio-sludge facility was, thanks to city leaders, moving toward ceasing operations and closing, after years of odor complaints from residents.

About 20 municipalities in southern New England send their waste solids to the Woonsocket treatment plant for incineration. With its closure, the only other existing plant in Rhode Island is in Cranston. Options like shipping it to be incinerated or landfilled in other states can quickly add up.

But repeated comments from residents at the March 23 Town Council meeting showed how difficult its going to be for any facility.

“Why can’t they put it somewhere that there aren’t neighborhoods and people and schools all around? Why does it have to be here?” Daniels asked. “But isn’t there a better place? Isn’t there an open place, somewhere that doesn’t have all of these people around and all the children, and where people can open their windows and not have to worry?”