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Breaking: August 7, 2024: We won’t back down! As the Town of Carver continues its cover up, CLWC working with a Ten Residents Group exposes extent of MassDEP complicity in environmental destruction: See the recent legal filings here
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August 1, 2024: CLWC demands state environmental Secretary Tepper require a MEPA environmental impact report for Pontiff’s mining expansion of 46.5 acres: Letter: CLWC demands environmental study
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May 16, 2024: State administrative law judge refuses to shut down illegal mining: See May 14, 2024 drone footage here
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Carver ERC chair Hannula calls this a “really good project” at the July 2, 2024 ERC meeting Watch here at minute 14
August, 2024: CLWC demands full environmental study
On August 1, 2024, CLWC demanded an environmental impact study. See the demand letter to MEPA here: August 1, 2024: CLWC demands environmental study.
The state’s environmental laws require an environmental notice for projects over a certain size that also involve state agency action. MassDEP has misrepresented Pontiff’s project as “only 17.8 acres” of cranberry bog construction. This lets Pontiff evade the land disturbance threshold of 25 acres for complying with the state environmental study law, MEPA. State agency action is involved because MassDEP issued a wetlands approval and the state Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program issued a “conditional take” permit for the mining operation. The mining will obliterate at least 1.7 acres of Priority Habitat 601 for the federal and state endangered Red Belly/Northern Cooter Turtle. Read more here about the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act here.
The mining is in an Environmental Justice community which subjects the environmental impacts to greater scrutiny under MEPA.
May 16, 2024: State allows illegal mining to continue without wetlands permit
A Carver Ten Residents Group has filed a legal appeal of the state’s wetlands permit for the Pontiff mine at 104 Tremont Street. See the appeal here. This appeal is before Judge Groulx. In this proceeding, the Ten Residents showed that DEP’s wetlands laws prohibit work without a permit which Pontiff does not have. See the Ten Residents Demand Cease & Desist legal memo here.
On May 16, 2024, Administrative Law Judge Groulx from the Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) refused to issue a cease and desist to stop illegal mining at 104 Tremont Street, Carver MA.
MassDEP is proactively allowing environmental destruction in blatant disregard of its own regulations — who are they protecting — the shady network of mining operators or the residents, their water, and the environment?
This outcome has sparked criticism, with many expressing frustration over the failure of state agencies to fulfill their regulatory duties.
Despite the setback, the Ten Residents Group and the Community Water and Land Coalition remain steadfast in their commitment to safeguarding the environment, vowing to fight industrial sand mining by Pontiff and others.
Read more
CLWC and its volunteers have compiled extensive background and source documentation on the over 15 years of mining operations at this site. This includes mining permits from Carver and aerial images showing the destruction of waterways and Priority Habitat area 601 for endangered species.
Read more: CLWC blog post here and Site Profile in Sand Wars report here.
Taking Action!
Residents protest at the illegal Pontiff sand mining at the Federal Furnace Cranberry Co. headquarters on Tremont Street, Carver in May, 2024
SIGN THE PETITION FOR A MORATORIUM ON SAND MINING in Southeastern Massachusetts here.