By JAMES MADDEN

RICHMOND – As far as the stump dump clean up is concerned, state and local officials are saying that there are two certainties Richard Romanoff, the owner of the Skunk Hill Road stump dump, will have to adhere to:  

1. Romanoff will be solely responsible for paying the total cost of the cleanup, and 2. There will be a deadline to complete the cleanup.

The last time Romanoff met with state and local officials to discuss the stump was Tuesday, Aug. 28.

He met with the Terrence Gray, Assistant Director for Air, Waste & Compliance with Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM); Mike Rubin an attorney representing the state from the Office of the Attorney General Patrick Lynch; and Dean Audet who’s representing the town from the engineering firm Fuss & O’Neil.

Right now these three officials are working together to draft a remediation plan agreement which Romanoff and a judge in Superior Court will both sign off on.

“I think our meetings have been very productive. Mr. Romanoff has been very cooperative,” said Gray, who other officials have said, is the number one official in charge of the remediation plan.  What officials have said so far is that the remediation plan will require Romanoff to grind up all the tree stumps on-site and then remove them.

Right now tree stumps cover nine acres of land and they’re embedded as far down as 80 feet deep.

Fires from spontaneous combustion and cockroaches have been a nuisance to neighbors for a few years.

“We’re trying to make clear what we’re requiring from him,” said Rubin. “Attorney General Lynch won’t be satisfied with anything that doesn’t meet the requirements of the town.”

Official said that once the agreement is signed, Romanoff will be locked into cleaning up the stump dump, and if he fails to follow through the town will have a signed agreement to use as leverage if any future litigation occurs.

Costs
As of now, officials aren’t willing to speculate as to how much the stump dump cleanup is going to cost Romanoff.

“I don’t know what that number is going to be,” said Richmond Town Council President Joseph Reddish III. “The town is not putting any money into the cleanup.”

“The cost really hasn’t been determined yet,” said Gray. “That’s something Mr. Romanoff will have to reckon with.”

Hope-Valley Wyoming Fire District Chief Fred Stanley estimated Romanoff will owe the district $50,000 for food, fuel, and phone costs, as well as 1,196 man hours.

Deadline

As far as the agreement including a deadline provision Rubin said, “That would be a fair thing to say.”

Reddish said, “There probably will be a deadline.” He also said that Romanoff would have to reimburse public departments, such as the Richmond Police Department and the Department of Public Works for extinguishing the fires that recently raged at the stump dump this summer.
  
Calls to Romanoff were not returned.