Next Up -- Ridding Former Riverside Jewelry Site of Tainted Soil

The former Vamco jewelry property in Riverside has been cleared of the three vacant buildings that made it an eyesore for years. Ridding the soil of hazardous chemicals is next.

GZA GeoEnvironmental of Providence will start remediating the site of any hazardous materials so it can be offered for business development, said David Bachrach, East Providence’s community development director. The work could start by the end of June. 

A privacy chain-link fence will go up to shield the site from passers-by as that work takes place, he said.

Crushed stone also will be sloped toward the basements that were left behind as stone- or concrete-lined holes in the ground, he said. 

Cost of the remediation is around $500,000, Bachrach said, with all of the clean-up cash coming from a variety of federal and state grants.

“It won’t cost the city anything,” he said. “I’ve been cobbling together grants.”

The first step of the remediation is drilling test pits to locate any contaminants that leaked or were dumped into the ground over the years the site was used to manufacture jewelry.

Future development of the site is probably at least one to two years down the road, Bachrach said. He hopes the parcel can be developed in tandem with a larger revitalization of Riverside Square just a few blocks away.

A citizens group, the Riverside Renaissance Committee, has been formed to help play a role in that longer-term development.

A second meeting of the Riverside committee is scheduled for Sunday at 6 pm at the Little Red Schoolhouse child-care center at 29 Sprague Ave. in Riverside, said Ted Sheridan of Narragansett Avenue, chairman of the group. The meeting starts at 6 pm and is open to anyone who wants to attend.

Items on the group's agenda, Sheridan said, include an update on the Vamco property by Bachrach; seeking nonprofit status, and gathering feedback from the community "on businesses they would frequent if they were there."