Three North Kingstown residents have filed a federal lawsuit against the company operating an asphalt facility at Quonset Business Park, accusing it of blanketing their neighborhood with eye-watering odors that have persisted for months. The proposed class action, filed Friday, names Vanessa Mascaro, her partner Russell Botvin and Josh Oleson as plaintiffs, and seeks both damages and an order to stop the smell for good.
According to The Providence Journal, Mascaro said it was time for action, adding that the main objective of the lawsuit was to stop the odor. The facility is owned by Bitumar of Montreal and operated in the Quonset Business Park by Ponderosa Solutions of Oklahoma, with Bitumar USA — the named defendant, headquartered in Baltimore — overseeing the business. The plant sits on the western edge of Quonset Business Park just off Route 403 and began operating in December 2025, heating rail-delivered asphalt product to almost 300 degrees before transferring it into waiting trucks bound for hot mix asphalt plants, per the same report.
Oleson, whose family lives half a mile north of the plant, told the paper that the smell has a rhythm: “Four in the morning you get the smell and it lasts until about 8,” he said, describing a pattern that also recurs late at night. He has submitted more than 70 odor complaints to the state Department of Environmental Management, the Quonset Business Corporation and the North Kingstown Town Council, the article notes. Heather Oleson, a member of the household, has non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the lawsuit as reported by the Providence Journal.
State Fined the Plant, But Fumes Kept Coming
Rhode Island's Department of Environmental Management sent the company a notice of violation in August after an inspector found what the agency described as strong asphalt fumes at the facility. DEM fined the company $8,500 and ordered it to submit an odor-mitigation plan within 60 days, the Providence Journal reported. Bitumar appealed the notice of violation that same month, which stayed both the penalty and the related deadlines pending a hearing.
A DEM spokesman said the penalty and timelines remain stayed pending the outcome of that appeal hearing, and no hearing date has been set because DEM and Bitumar are engaged in settlement negotiations, according to the Providence Journal. Separately, the Hummel Report, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, reported that DEM received 168 complaints of strong asphalt fumes between March 26 and July 15, while WPRI put that figure at 164 complaints over the same window — a discrepancy the available records do not resolve.
The Hummel Report also found that a DEM investigator who inspected the site on July 8 experienced nausea and coughing from odors described as so strong they were objectionable. The Hummel Report described the Quonset inspection odors as strong asphalt fumes; Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management materials note that asphalt fumes are associated with irritation of the eyes, nose and throat. Bitumar told the Hummel Report it would not provide interviews or substantive comment while discussions with authorities were ongoing, and separately said it had purchased engineered vapor-control equipment as part of an odor-control management plan shared with the town.
Neighbors Say the Smell Never Really Left
Despite the state's enforcement action, residents say the problem didn't go away. Neighbors have reported that noxious odors persisted even after DEM's order, and ecoRI News reported that conditions have mostly stunk since late fall 2025. One neighbor of Mascaro's, who had lived in the area for more than a decade, now plans to move because of the smell, according to the Providence Journal.
The lawsuit, a 21-page complaint filed by Liddle Sheets P.C. with local counsel in U.S. District Court in Providence, estimates that more than 2,000 owners and renters live within a 1.25-mile radius of the plant — the pool from which the proposed class would be drawn. A court-docket listing from Justia shows the case, Mascaro et al v. Bitumar USA, Inc., was filed as a torts-to-land action on Oct. 16. Bitumar did not respond to a request for comment from the Providence Journal by its deadline.
What the Lawsuit Is Asking a Judge to Do
The complaint seeks damages and injunctive relief. Town correspondence has previously pointed to a state regulation, 250-RICR-120-05-17, which prohibits odors under Rhode Island law, according to records released by the Town of North Kingstown.
For now, the case's procedural path forward — along with the outcome of DEM's stayed enforcement action against Bitumar — remains unresolved. Residents like Mascaro and Oleson say they're not waiting to find out whether settlement talks or an appeal hearing come first; the lawsuit, they hope, will force the issue sooner.
