Wareham: Voters Seek Accountability for AD Makepeace Co. Sand Mining
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Select Board yet to act on 2021, 2023 Town Meeting calls to hold Makepeace accountable
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Letter says Makepeace deprived the Town of a least $625,000 in earth removal fees
Background
AD Makepeace Co. is based in Wareham MA. It is one of the state’s largest private landowners, with about 12,000 acres in Wareham, Carver and Plymouth. Makepeace owns a large portion of the Town of Wareham and has considerable political clout in the Town. The company regularly donates to charitable causes and hosts recreational events to solidify its power– even “Arbor Day” which some find ironic due to the company’s massive destruction of forests and the environment. The Save the Pine Barrens You Tube channel is documenting Makepeace’s sand mining.
Makepeace’s core business is selling the sand from its mines via its sister company Read Custom Soils. Makepeace sells to industrial and commercial customers like concrete and asphalt facilities, golf courses, and more. Sand and gravel sales are highly profitable and prices have gone up 5 times in the last 5 years. Makepeace is also a cranberry grower but that business is break even business at best. Makepeace is also in the business of residential real estate development and industrial solar installations.
Read more in Sand Wars In Cranberry Country here.
Cranberry farming gives Makepeace a cover for its sand mining. It claims the sand mining is exempt from laws because it is “farming” and entitled to special protections. Read more about how the cranberry industry evades laws on sand mining in the Sand Wars report here.
Below: 85 acre AD Makepeace sand mine in Carver, MA. Makepeace claims this is cranberry agriculture. It put in a solar project to the left after sand mining and stripping 50 acres of pristine Pine Barrens forest starting in 2016.
Makepeace sand mining in Wareham
Makepeace has been sand mining for commercial sale in Wareham for decades. Residents observe the endless number of trucks leaving loaded with sand. The trucks are a safety hazard on the roads, destroy roads, and operate recklessly. Examples of the excessive truck traffic is on You Tube.
Makepeace has mined at least 2.5 million cubic yards from Wareham leveling up to 250 acres of forest. More mining is proposed at 140 Tihonet Road and possibly other locations. At today’s prices, the sand is worth up to $40 million.
Below: Google Earth aerial image of some mining sites in Wareham marked with yellow pin. Most are AD Makepeace, but other cranberry companies and sand and gravel companies operate without permits or in violation of permits.
“The site was formerly used for sand mining, which cleared the site of vegetation….Because sand mining is ongoing, site grades fluctuate; final grades will range from 54 ft to 64 ft NAVD.”
Makepeace mining violates Wareham Earth Removal Bylaw for over a decade
Wareham regulates earth removal. The Earth Removal Bylaw requires a permit and strict plan conditions to protect the environment and residents, and requires mining companies to pay 25 cents per cubic yard for sand removed. A typical tractor trailer is about 24 cubic yards and would owe a fee of $6.00 — a small amount compared to the value of the sand.
The Town Select Board is responsible for the Earth Removal Bylaw. It must ensure that companies doing mining get permits and comply with them. This includes paying fees.
Below: Excerpt from Town of Wareham General Bylaw, Earth Removal Regulations, Section 4, requiring fees of 25 cents per cubic yard of earth removed.
The Select Board has never applied or enforced the Wareham Earth Removal Bylaw against Makepeace and only rarely against other companies. The chair of the Select Board confirmed this in a 2021 Letter.
By allowing Makepeace to mine without a permit the Select Board deprived Wareham of up to $625,000 in revenue.
October 2021: voters approve sand mining audit, collection of fees, penalties
In response to growing alarm about the scope and scale of Makepeace’s sand mining and environment destruction, Wareham voters proposed a Town Meeting warrant article. Article 18 urged the Select Board to audit Makepeace’s mining. The article passed almost unanimously. Read the Wareham Week story here.
Below: Town of Wareham Town Meeting Warrant Article 18, October, 2021. It requires an audit a four AD Makepeace mining sites, and others.
December 4, 2021: Select Board votes to hire an expert
In response to the Town’s vote to approve Article 18, the audit, the Wareham Select Board met and on December 4, 2021 voted 4-1 to proceed with the audit and collection of fees and penalties. On January 4, 2022, the Board discussed the topic again. Read the Wareham Week story here.
The story reported a resident said the petitioner was “an unambiguous complaint” to the town about possible earth removal bylaw violations.”
At the January 4, 2022 Select Board meeting member Peter Teitelbaum, a Makepeace supporter, complained that seeking to enforce the bylaw was a “slippery slope”. Barry Cosgrove who proposed the Town Meeting Article in 2021 commented:
“If fulfilling a legal obligation under bylaw and respecting the will of the people is a slippery slope, what is the metaphor for ignoring a legal obligation and ignoring the will of the people?”
November 2022: group requests Town enforce Earth Removal Bylaw
With Makepeace’s sand and gravel mining continuing to ravage Wareham, local advocacy group Save the Pine Barrens sent a demand for enforcement of the Earth Removal Bylaw to the Town. The Town ignored the demand.
See the Enforcement Demand letter here. It documents violations at six locations including 160 Tihonet Road, Farm to Market Road and mining by cranberry companies Sure-Cran, Rounseville Hammond, and Fletcher, and a pit operated by Graziano.
March 2023: Ten Residents Group sends Notice of Intent to Sue
Still seeking action from the Town on sand mining, on March 17, 2023, a Ten Residents Group invoked the Massachusetts Citizen Suit Law, Chapter 214, 7A. Under this law, they can seek remedies for Damage to the Environment from Makepeace’s sand mining. Read the Wareham Ten Residents Notice Intent to Sue here.
Notice letter focuses on three Makepeace mining sites in Wareham and estimates the company removed at least 2.5 million cubic yards without permits. This deprived the Town of $625,000 in earth removal fees.
Read the A.D.Makepeace Reply to Notice of Intent to Sue 2023.04.14 here. Neither the Town nor the Attorney General responded. The matter is pending.
April 2023: Wareham voters approve funding for sand mining investigation
Over a year passed with no action on the 2021 to audit Makepeace’s sand mining and collect fees and penalties. In April 2023, the voters approved spending $50,000 for a sand mining investigation. Read the Wareham Week story here.
Read the Wicked Local story here: Expert opinion could quell earth removal ‘innuendo’ in Wareham
April 2024: still no action on voter’s call for sand mining investigation
As of April, 2024, the Wareham Select Board was still discussing how to carry out the 2021 voter’s Article 18 for an audit, penalties and fees for sand mining. Read the Wareham Week story here. In the meantime, sand mining continues.
Above: AD Makepeace sand mining, Farm to Market Road, Wareham, 2021. Image shows excavation into side of hill.
Makepeace claims of cranberry farming don’t add up
Makepeace has claimed time and again that earth removed from Wareham is for its “agricultural operations” such as building, refurbishing and winter sanding its own cranberry bogs.
Makepeace has mined enough sand around the region to fill Gillette Stadium about 2 miles high. The region-wide math does not add up. Nor do the Makepeace claims that the mining operations are “necessary” to build new agricultural projects. Read more about the laws and how they are evaded in Sand Wars.
