Residents, tribes and scientists press for moratorium, task force after widespread sand mining in southeastern Massachusetts

Summary

A large and often emotional wave of testimony urged a one-year moratorium and a state study into sand and gravel mining across Plymouth and Bristol counties. Witnesses — including Wampanoag tribal leaders, public health researchers and town officials — warned of aquifer risk, damaged wetlands and silica dust.

Hundreds of acres of cleared woods, community complaints about airborne dust and concerns from Wampanoag tribal leaders prompted extensive testimony at a Joint Committee hearing on bills proposing a temporary moratorium and a state study of commercial sand and gravel mining in southeastern Massachusetts.

Representative Mike Connolly, who introduced House Bill 9 18 to create an advisory task force and House Bill 9 48 to pause mining in specified counties, told the committee the proposals respond to a rapid increase in industrial-scale excavation that locals say is being permitted as ‘‘agricultural’’ work. “This is strip mining; it is removing uplands that protect the aquifer,” Connolly said during his remarks introducing the bills.

Environmental attorneys and conservationists described widespread forest removal across the state’s rare Atlantic coastal pine barrens, the damage to wetlands and the potential for…

Residents, tribes and scientists press for moratorium, task force after widespread sand mining in southeastern Massachusetts

Summary

Subscribe to keep reading