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Residents, Tribes and Scientists Urge Moratorium on Southeastern Massachusetts Sand Mining
Summary
At a packed Joint Committee hearing, elected officials, tribal leaders, health professionals and scientists urged lawmakers to place an immediate moratorium and create a task force to study the environmental, cultural and public‑health impacts of commercial sand and gravel extraction in Southeastern Massachusetts.
A broad coalition of residents, Indigenous leaders, public-health professionals and environmental scientists told the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources that sand and gravel mining in Plymouth and nearby towns has reached a scale that demands state action.
"This is mining. No matter what they call it," said Sandra Fosgate of Plymouth, who showed committee members photographs of large pits and scrubbed hills. "You can see the crater. It looks like a desert." Linda Coombs, a Mashpee Wampanoag elder, told the committee the work has harmed unmarked burial sites and damaged lands her community has stewarded for generations.
Researchers from Olin College presented lab data and air samples that showed respirable crystalline silica downwind from an active pit, evidence climate and…
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