The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Nov. 6 for a public earth removal hearing for Morse Brothers Cranberries. Kevin Grady from Grady Consulting, Atty. Nick Rosenberg, and Brendan Moquin were there representing Morse Brothers and their project. Grady said, “The project is an agricultural use. It’s a common practice to utilize source materials from cranberry bogs, in particular, for agricultural use. This application is in no way similar to what we submitted a couple of years ago when we were looking to do a renovation of the entire bog. That is not what we’re proposing here; this is very simple, gravel removal application. It’s something they’ve been doing for decades.” He also said that the application was submitted in compliance with the bylaw and all regulations. He said they were looking to remove 20,000 cubic yards over 1.4 acres of the 308 total acre property.
Selectman Chair John Bruno asked about traffic resulting from the project. “Morse Cranberry has been utilizing Lingan St. for decades; it’s the only road in and out. We’ve looked at other avenues of access – they just don’t exist,” the representatives explained.
Town Engineer Patrick Brennan spoke regarding his findings. “My main concerns… and Kevin just mentioned that; how close they can excavate to the ground water table – this is within the Zone 2 of the public wells… you have to leave so many feet separation to the ground water to avoid any potential contamination of the ground water tables,” Brennan said. He continued, “they’re going to adjust the plans so that they stay a minimum of four feet above the ground water table which is what the regulations call for.” Selectman Jonathan Selig asked if Brennan would be more comfortable with a buffer greater than 4 ft. He said that yes, the greater the buffer, the greater the protection.
Brennan also said that the nearest adjacent property is nearly half a mile away. He added that, therefore, he didn’t believe that noise from the excavators would be a problem. He also said that he believes it’s important that the trucking not be done before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
The Selectmen had the residents wishing to speak sign up and the list totaled nearly 40 people. The first resident asked how long the project would be estimated to take as well as how many trucks are anticipated to travel down Lingan St. daily. She also asked if the trucks would be running during holidays. It was said that they would max out at about 50 trucks per day and that a rough estimate of the length of the project would be “a little over a month.” When asked if the winter could cause the project to be temporarily paused, the consultant said that the project would likely need to be stopped after the first freeze and resumed in the spring.
Another resident said that the layers of Lingan St. were not intended for heavy truck traffic. Still another resident asked, “Are any materials being trucked in from outside currently to fill those roads?” “Not that we are aware of,” Bruno said. “It looks like there are a lot of changes going on along that road, so if someone is going out from the Highway, could they inspect that dirt road and inspect the material and how that is being re-graded,” she continued. Bruno said, “We’ll make a note of that, thank you.”
Kimberly King of the Halifax Conservation Commission said, “There were multiple complaints that went into DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) and other state boards. Those investigations did come back to Conservation last week and there were no findings by any of the State agencies that Morse Brothers were in violation.” Regarding the findings, she added, “It would be very educational for the residents to have.” Resident Steve Goodman, who also serves on the Conservation Commission, said, “My concerns are environmental mainly; the DEP report that you’re relying on is fundamentally flawed. In it, it indicates that they found that they didn’t remove any earth lower than the elevation of some of the dike roads, however some of those dike roads are lower than the historical high-water mark which is what you’re supposed to use for how low you can go as far as removing earth. And if they’ve never removed earth below the water table then I need someone to explain to me how that hole keeps filling up with water.” Goodman also said, “I never had, in four years, any silt, any problems at all with my water and after I watched the trucks go by for four or five weeks in a row without a permit, my water quality is significantly less since then.”
Jeremy Gillespie asked the Town Engineer, “There’s two monitoring wells on site and one of them is located right next to a drainage canal; do you think that has any effect on the water and the monitoring well being that close?” “When the bogs are flooded, the levels in the well actually come up and they have that information in the stuff they sent to me today,” Brennan said. Gillespie became heated insisting that Right to Farm not only protects the farmers, but the residents right to clean air and water. He ended his statement saying, “In fact, their own attorneys said that the Board of Selectmen can’t even issue a permit legally according to their own bylaws and that zoning overlay district that protects our aquifer was approved in 1998 so let them take it back to the Attorney General and have it nullified if that’s what they want to do but the Board of Selectmen does not have the authority to issue a permit.” This final statement was met with rousing applause to which Bruno said, “you know folks, I really don’t want to do this; we’re trying to do this in a measured and professional way and would appreciate everyone’s assistance in that. We all know this is a hot issue… but it’s not helpful if we have cheering, if we have booing going on.”
Gordon Andrews was the final name on the list. He said, “I’m just wondering if the Board of Selectmen could say whether this project is within the aquifer protection zone?” Brennan said, “Yes, it is in Zone 2.” Andrews replied asking, “So has the Planning Board issued a permit for this project?” He also asked the Selectmen to set the fee at $15 per yard if they approve the project. “It is within your power to set the fee; $15 a yard times the 20,000 – you’ve got $300,000 to fix the road,” Andrews said. He further asked that they review the abutters list to make sure that no one has a conflict of interest. Andrews also asked if the Board of Selectmen had received any recommendations from the Water Commissioners and if they did, if they could please read them. Bruno said that the documents are part of the public record and anyone can read them, however, he noted that the Water Department did not have any concerns assuming the guidelines are followed.
Someone asked the Selectmen if it was the responsibility of the Board to have made Morse Brothers cease the controversial earth removal that took place in the past. Bruno was careful to say that he didn’t know that the Morse Brothers did anything illegal in the past, noting that there was controversy surrounding it.
Regarding when a decision would be made, Bruno said that they are attempting to make a thoughtful decision and said that he needed time to sleep on it and think it over. Selig said, “there are three parts to this, there’s the residents, the Morse Brothers, and there’s the environment and I think that we need to try and come up with the best solution possible to make sure that all three of those get addressed.”