Carver: Lawsuit to challenge ZBA and SLT Construction’s Spring Street mining site violations

SLT’s mining operation banned in the Spring Street Innovation District, says group; asked Carver Zoning Board of Appeals to enforce the law.

The Carver Zoning Board of Appeals refused to enforce the zoning bylaw against the SLT mining operation on Spring Street in Carver in 2022. Residents appealed the ZBA’s decision to court. After over a year of legal proceedings, in late 2023 the residents withdrew their case and pursued other options to address the environmental and human harms caused by this project. According to social media statements by AGT Trucking which hauls sand for SLT Construction, the company is under investigation by the Office of Inspector General. 

STPB says industrial sand mining is banned in this area of town which is zoned as the “Spring Street Innovation District.”

In April 2015, Carver Town Meeting voters changed the zoning to “Spring Street Innovation District” from residential with the promise that this would be an “innovative” business park.” Instead, the Zoning Board of Appeals has been allowing strip mining for over four years. SLT plans to continue mining around Rickett’s Pond which could take another two years.

The mine’s operator, SLT Corporation has been extracting sand and gravel from the site since at least 2018. Pictures and videos document the recent rapid progress of SLT’s forest clear-cutting and strip mining. Sand from the site is polluting Rickett’s Pond. Neighbors’ homes are very close by and their yards and cars are covered with silt and dust every day. They suffer from extreme noise from logging and mining equipment, trucks, and their homes shake when SLT is mining.

SLT claims it is just building a “roadway, stormwater utilities and drainage.” STPB spokesperson Meg Sheehan asks, “Who’s kidding who? The pictures tell it all. We are simply asking the Zoning Board of Appeals to do its job and enforce the zoning laws passed by the voters of Carver,” Sheehan added.