The neighborhood abutting the Port of Providence in Rhode Island is vulnerable to oil spills thanks to the hulking shadow of Shell Oil storage tanks. Photo: Ecophotography
In South Providence, Rhode Island, residents near the Port of Providence have lived under the hulking shadow of Shell Oil storage tanks for years. Twenty-five aging tanks sit on 75 acres along Allens Avenue, directly in a flood zone, as luck – or rather carelessness – would have it.
“These facilities are ticking time bombs,” says Darrèll Brown, vice president for CLF Rhode Island.
Brown worries about the potential for massive leaks in Port of Providence, which abuts a neighborhood of single- and two-family homes. He also worries about what could happen if there were an oil spill into the Providence River, which flows into Narragansett Bay.
“Every time it rains or we have a storm, toxins get dumped into the Bay now,” he says. “Other oil facilities around the country have been breached and discharged during big storms. It hasn’t happened here yet, but it’s just a matter of time.”
Taking Shell to Court
The threat of a toxic oil spill from these tanks is why CLF is challenging Shell Oil in court. For years, the company has jeopardized the health and safety of New England coastal residents by failing to prepare and fortify its aging oil tank farms for increasingly extreme weather driven by its own products. These old tank farms sit menacingly close to waterways and communities – not just in Providence, but also in New Haven, Connecticut, where oil storage tanks abut New Haven Harbor. Their proximity to neighborhood backyards, as well as the condition of some of the tanks, worries residents like Anstress Farwell, who says she has seen oil slicks in puddles on streets near the New Haven facility. If either of these facilities were hit by a bad storm – a prospect increasingly likely with climate change – it could devastate nearby neighborhoods.
Farwell says she is grateful that “this serious, ongoing problem is getting attention.”
And it’s not just the potential risk of extreme storms that’s a problem. Shell has also failed to accurately report and manage the pollutants its oil storage terminals release into both the Providence River and New Haven Harbor on a daily basis. This violates the federal Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Our Lawsuit Advances in a Historic First
Since we first filed suit against Shell in 2017 for inaction in Providence (and again in 2021 for violations in New Haven), it’s been a long, slow process, but we’ve made progress. In fact, CLF lawsuits against oil giants are breaking new ground. We were among the first to sue Big Oil for risks presented by flood-prone facilities adjacent to critical waterways and coastlines. And, despite Shell’s attempts to get our cases thrown out of court, separate judges have given the New Haven and Providence lawsuits the go-ahead. In fact, our cases are the first in the U.S. to reach the discovery phase of litigation, during which both sides must produce information relevant to the lawsuit.
Over the last year, we have questioned Shell employees and scientists under oath to learn what the company knew about climate change and the need for adaptation. While trying every legal trick in the book to get our case thrown out, Shell has refused to answer questions implicating high-level Shell parent companies and officials who direct and control operations at the terminals. But it has turned over some damning evidence – in fact, millions of pages of documents – including photos of contaminated areas of the Providence facility that flooded during a December 2022 storm.
“The evidence shows that the company has left this facility woefully unprepared for extreme weather,” says Brown. “Major risks exist now, and they’re only going to get worse as the oceans rise and storms intensify.”
Step By Step, We’re Breaking Ground
As the Shell Oil cases continue, we’ve seen big victories in similar cases we’ve launched against oil companies in the meantime. In 2023, our pressure forced ExxonMobil to shut down its oil terminal along the Mystic River abutting neighborhoods in Everett, Massachusetts. As part of the settlement agreement, ExxonMobil agreed that the property can never again be used to store petroleum products. And as the Shell cases move forward, we are resolved that Providence and New Haven residents should also live without the threat of toxic chemicals flooding neighborhoods and bays.
“Our communities deserve better than to be treated as a dumping ground for toxic fossil fuel products,” says Brown. “Our goal is simple: we want the company to clean up its pollution while preparing for the impacts of climate change it helped cause. We won’t let Shell break the law at the expense of our communities.”
