Carver: Judge grants motion to dismiss lawsuit against local zoning board over AD Makepeace illegal mining on Federal Road; says go to the Earth Removal Committee instead

October 12, 2022: Judge rules Carver ERC not ZBA has authority to stop Makepeace’s illegal earth removal operations. Read the decision here.

A separate lawsuit against Makepeace and ERC goes to court November 2, 2022 over these same mining violations. Read more here.

Community groups fighting on every front to stop illegal mining while Makepeace and Carver ERC team up to try to stop them from getting into court to protect our Sole Source Aquifer, drinking water and forests

At six sites along Federal Road in Carver, AD Makepeace and its shell company Read Custom Soils have strip mined at least 300 acres, about half of which is now solar. A short video is here.

Under the ruse of building cranberry bogs, Makepeace has leveled the highest hills, removing tens of millions of cubic yards of sand and gravel from about 2 square miles. See Save the Pine Barrens presentation to the Carver Zoning Board of Appeals from Sept. 2021 here.

Hundreds of truckloads of sand and gravel leave town, taking away the filtration and protection of the Sole Source Aquifer.

The sand and gravel materials include a globally rare commodity – silica sand. The United Nations in 2022 issued a warning about the need to regulate sand mining. That’s what local residents are demanding in Southeastern Massachusetts.

At the center of their concerns is the rare Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens, an unique ecosystem of pitch pine, scrub oak, and rare plant and animal species, that sits atop the Plymouth Carer Sole Source Aquifer, drinking water for 7 towns and Brockton.

Throughout 2021, letters were sent to both Carver and Wareham about the danger of the trucks speeding by on the rural, winding Federal Road. They also raised the conflicts of interest of the Carver Earth Removal Committee, charged with regulating AD Makepeace, who either do business with Makepeace itself or work in the cranberry, trucking or excavation business industry.

On the petition of Save the Pine Barrens, a hearing was held before the Carver Zoning Board of Appeals in September, 2021. The Board refused to enforce the law, so Save the Pine Barrens and residents filed a lawsuit to stop the illegal mining. On October 12, 2022, Judge Sullivan of the Superior court allowed the motion to dismiss by Makepeace and the Carver Zoning Board of Appeals. The Judge said that the Earth Removal Committee is the only Town body that can address illegal mining operations. In August 2022, a Ten Residents group sued AD Makepeace and the ERC under the Citizen Suit Statute to stop the violations. Read more here.