Plymouth: AD Makepeace mining operation under the ruse of cranberry agriculture exposed

  CLwpBS  Biodiversity

AD Makepeace blatantly abuses the process for obtaining permits under the Mass Endangered Species Act

State officials look the other way, pretend Plymouth mining operations are “cranberry agriculture”

Hundreds of acres of Priority Habitat for rare and endangered Pine Barrens plants and animals being obliterated

Above: Location of AD Makepeace 217-acre strip mine. The company is trying to claim this is a “agriculture project” to build 136 acres of cranberry bogs and reservoirs, pumps and canals. Below: strip mine will destroy globally rare habitat designated for conservation by the state.

Priority Habitat being for rare and endangered species being destroyed by AD Makepeace strip mine, State DFG goes along

AD Makepeace 140 acre mining project in Priority Habitat 507 and adjacent to Priority Habitat 601 Source: MassMapper https://maps.massgis.digital.mass.gov/MassMapper/MassMapper.html

The state’s top environmental official, Secretary of Energy & Environmental Affairs, continues to cover up for AD Makepeace, pretending this is “agriculture.” The state ignores the hundreds of trucks a day hauling sand and gravel illegally mined to supply Makepeace’s Read Custom Soils aggregate processing and sales facility. As shown on the map below, Makepeace’s Read Custom Soils is abutting the 2014- acre Plymouth strip mine where the company is mining at least 7.2 million cubic yards according to its Town permit application.

AD Makepeace’s Read Custom Soils, less than 1/2 mile from the 140 acre Plymouth mining site

Makepeace brags it is strip mining its “enormous reserves” of sand and gravel in Plymouth and Carver:

From AD Makepeace Read Custom Soils: www.readcustomsoils.com

Within a one mile radius ADM Makepeace is strip mining at least 14 million cubic yards of sand and gravel according to permits in Carver and Wareham. More is being mined without permits under the pretense that the sand and gravel is being used to maintain and restore Makepeace’s 1,700 acres of bogs.

AD Makepeace has at least 4 large mining sites within about a 1 mile radius in Plymouth and Carver. Source: Mass Mapper. Yellow is Priority Habitat under Mass. Endangered Species Act.

AD Makepeace mining locations: south Plymouth & Carver’s Read Custom Soils

Some AD Makepeace mining and solar sites surrounding Read Custom Soils, Carver, Plymouth, Wareham MA. 2022.
List of sites corresponding to numbers in map above.
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *