BEFORE & AFTER AD MAKEPEACE & BORREGO SOLAR STRIP MINE:
50 acres of pristine forest now strip mined
Video of AD Makepeace destruction at the Golden Pond Site in Carver is on YouTube:
Borrego partners with AD Makepeace — identifying the highest points of land with the largest volume of earth and putting solar installations there. Grabbing ratepayer and taxpayer subsidies to do this. The ruse and the cheating is being exposed.Here’s some info about Borrego Solar. Here’s the top tier management with their contact info. Feel free to let them know what you think of their destruction of the globally rare Pine Barrens forests in Southeastern Massachusetts. Source: Pitchbook.
May 13, 2021 — BUSTED!
An explosive new video shows AD Makepeace violating its Carver earth removal permit by running trucks at 150% over the permitted level. This is at just one site-they are operating three sites. We demand that the Town of Carver shut down these operations immediately. We have sent a second request for enforcement.
The time for delay and games is over.
Makepeace’s own reports show violations — and according to Carver, these truck numbers don’t include sand and gravel sold commercially to cranberry bog companies.
There are criminal and civil penalties for violating an earth removal permit: $100 per violation. Bylaw section 9.1.9. The truck limit is 50 per day.
These time comparison shots of AD Makepeace Read Custom Soils site on Federal Road in Carver on the Plymouth line show the strip mining between 2010 and 2018. It has been going on continuously since 2018. More has been destroyed. Photos from Google Earth Pro (free for downloading on the internet).
We are racing against the clock to save biodiversity and humanity from the destructive extraction of “sand and gravel” in Southeastern Massachusetts and from and the bright green lie of clean energy is destroying out pristine globally rare forests.
Our letter is here.
AD MAKEPEACE & BORREGO SOLAR: BUSTED!
May 13, 2021 UPDATE:
Saturday, May 8, 2021: Carver, MA, USA Location: “Golden Field” solar project site and strip mine expansion, Federal Road, Carver, Massachusetts.
BUSTED: AD Makepeace violating its earth removal permit by operating past noon on a Saturday.
AD Makepeace Co. strip mined millions of dollars worth of sand from a Priority Habitat area in Wareham in 2014 under the ruse of agriculture. Now it is a 50 acre Borrego Solar site. See our page on 160 Tihonet Road solar, Wareham MA.
For the Borrego Solar “Golden Field” project, 50 acres of globally rare pristine upland Pine Barrens forests were leveled. Another 100 acres is currently being destroyed under an Earth Removal Permit from Carver claiming this is an agricultural operation. A total of about 500 acres will be strip mined for industrial solar “site preparation” if the 10th, 11th and 12th projects now proposed for Wareham goes ahead.
At the Golden Field solar and strip mine site, endangered Eastern Box Turtles have been killed. Unknown numbers of plants and animals and rare biodiversity of the Pine Barrens ecosystem have been destroyed at this site.
The area contained evidence of a Wampanoag work area. It was destroyed under cover of a letter from Mass Historic Commission. Note that the letter says it is for an AD Makepeace “agricultural project.” Strip mining is not an agricultural operation.
The Golden Field solar project and strip mine was allowed to pass Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review without an environmental impact report. The AD Makepeace-Borrego MEPA Environmental Notification Form is filled with inconsistencies and unverified claims.
This is why we are fighting to save the Pine Barrens and standing with our Indigenous allies against destruction of life on Earth here in Southeastern Massachusetts.
This is why the three proposed Makepeace & Borrego Solar projects to strip mine and clearcut another 190 acres in Wareham in Southeastern Massachusetts must be stopped.
May 7, 2021: UPDATE: Why so many sand and gravel trucks hauling out earth on Wareham Roads on Federal Road?
We’ve documented over 1 truck a minute coming into Wareham from Carver:
Here’s one of the Makepeace strip mine sites sending trucks through Carver — before and after work started.
The reason there are so many trucks in Wareham is that Carver’s Earth Removal Committee makes AD Makepeace use Wareham roads to haul out the earth-not Carver roads.
To get the permit for a massive project permitted in 2020 — at least 160 truck trips a day hauling sand for 4 years — Carver told Makepeace it had to use Wareham roads, not Carver roads when leaving the site. Watch out Wareham. More dangerous truck traffic coming your way, destroying your roads.
About us:
We are documenting ongoing “earth removal” — in reality, strip mining and taking down the highest areas of land throughout the region — under the guise of “agriculture” or “site preparation” for land based solar projects. Under Massachusetts energy policy, taxpayers are subsidizing this destruction of forests and biodiversity for solar projects. The Department of Energy Resources (DOER) must end all subsidies for land based solar.
Plymouth, Wareham and Carver and surrounding towns are the sacrifice zone for DOER energy policy. AD Makepeace Company, the largest landowner in eastern Massachusetts has been implementing a strategic plan to remove earth, strip mine and sell it and then use it for solar projects. Makepeace has been working with Borrego Solar for 10 years to find the most lucrative sand deposits on its landholdings. Then Makepeace tells local permitting agencies that the earth will be used for “agricultural purposes.” There is no documentation. Instead, it appears at least 18 million cubic yards of earth has been sold off for private profit.
The ongoing strip mines and deforestation for land based solar is causing massive, cumulative impacts to land, water and biodiversity. Here we attempt to document and demand transparency and accountability.