UPDATE! JULY 5TH COURT DATE MOVED TO JULY 10TH! SEE UPDATED DETAILS BELOW!
Standout & Rally: July 10 @ Brockton Superior Court, 72 Belmont St. at 1 p.m. Support local residents asking the court for a preliminary injunction to shut down the Maki – Lopes sand mining site on Meadow St.! Press conference and rally!
1 p.m. Standout in front of the court house.
2 p.m. Court hearing: open to the public
COMMUNITY LAND & WATER COALITION HOST RALLY AT BROCKTON SUPERIOR COURTHOUSE TO BLOCK ILLEGAL SAND MINING OPERATION IN CARVER
Local residents ask for emergency order to protect drinking water, residents
(Brockton, Mass.) – At 1 pm on July 10, Community Land & Water Coalition, a volunteer-led grassroots network working to preserve, protect, and steward the unique and finite land and water resources of Southeastern Massachusetts, will host a rally in support of a request by local residents for an injunction to be heard by the Superior Court on the docket that day at 2 p.m. The request for the preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed in April 2023 by plaintiffs Joseph and Keith Beadling, would prohibit Carver landowner Bette Maki who is mining under the name of a defunct cranberry company, Alex Johnson Co. and The Lopes Companies LLC of Taunton re continuing to remove sand and gravel from the Plymouth Carver Sole Source Aquifer, hauling it off site and selling it through their aggregate materials business. If the injunction is granted, it would also prohibit the Town of Carver Earth Removal Committee from renewing, approving, or extending any permits to continue mining
According to plaintiffs’ court filings, the defendants claim the mining is to build a pond to supply water for cranberry bogs. They have been digging the pond since 2011. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which inspected the site in 2022, the pond is three times the size needed to water the bogs. State law prohibits mining in the groundwater yet state officials have done nothing to stop the illegal operation. According to plaintiffs’ experts, the operation is not cranberry agriculture but commercial mining, is emitting carcinogenic silica dust onto residential properties, and creating conditions that contaminate groundwater with toxic pollution. Testimony submitted to the court by the plaintiffs describes how for a decade since the mining started, they have not been able to open their windows due to the dust, when they go outside their skin and lips become covered with sand, their cars are constantly covered with sand, their homes shake from the rock crushing and their foundation is cracked from vibrations from the operation.
Silica sand is toxic to human lungs when inhaled.
WHO: Community Land & Water Coalition and other environmental, conservation,
and community groups and organizations.
WHAT: Rally in support of the emergency motion to stop illegal sand mining outlined in
Beadling v. Maki and to bring awareness of the environmental devastation the practice is bringing to the lands of Southeastern Massachusetts.
WHERE: Brockton Superior Court
72 Belmont Street
Brockton, MA
WHEN: Wednesday, July 5th
1 p.m. (The preliminary injunction motion will be heard during the 2 p.m. session)
