Consent Order
Lawyers for Pike Industries have drafted a Consent Order, which would allow Pike to conduct heavy industrial blasting in the Five Star Park. This Order is being presented to the Westbrook City Council on Monday night, August 30th. This order was hammered out in secret, between only three parties; Pike, IDEXX and Mayor Hilton. Other Westbrook citizens and businesses who attempted to participate were shut out, and the Order has many defects. You can read the order here. Some major problems with this order are listed below.
- An Unfair process now and into the future
- Secret deal between two large corporations
- Public excluded from participation and is now told that no changes are possible
- Pike is exempted from local quarry laws now and into the future.
- No site plan review by Westbrook planning board
- No possibility of citizen appeal to Zoning Board of Appeals
- No enforcement rights for citizens
Toxic Wastes Released into the Environment.
Pike was informed that toxic cancer-causing TCE was present on the Spring Street site before they purchased it from Blue Rock in 2005.
Maine DEP informed Pike in 2008 that TCE monitoring would be required as part of expansion plans, and in 2010 the DEP provided Westbrook officials a list of 12 recommendations for TCE monitoring and control.
This Consent Order ignores all 12 DEP recommendations, and will allow Pike to blast without any monitoring for TCE in their quarry or in the Stroudwater River.
The Maine DEP has noted that this consent order contains “no enforceable provisions” to protect the environment from TCE.
Net Job Loss for Westbrook
Pike is in the process of relocating remaining management and administration jobs from Westbrook to Lewiston.
IDEXX has postponed a decision on building $50 million headquarters building with 500+ jobs.
Artel and other businesses will be forced to move out of Westbrook, taking at least 75 jobs out of the city.
Some CEO in Europe ordered another one of these.
(He expects delivery to Westbrook on Monday.)
This photo shows you what Pike Industries, part of a $30 billion foreign corporation, has already left on Main Street for the people of Westbrook.
Pike now wants to blast another gaping hole in the earth, on Spring Street. And if they get the OK, seismic shockwaves will periodically rip through the property right next door (2 Eisenhower Drive), which is loaded with toxic chemicals leaking into the ground. We are concerned that acute vibrations in the bedrock could force these toxins into the Stroudwater River. As the Gulf disaster showed us, environmental responsibility can be a very low priority for an overseas business.
The courts say blasting is illegal on Spring Street. That’s a plain and simple fact. But Pike wants to extract profit from Westbrook at your expense, and blast anyway. So their lawyers have written a so-called “consent order” that will allow blasting on Spring Street, now and in the future. This “consent order” is only between Pike and another large company, IDEXX. Nobody else was allowed into the negotiations – not the neighboring residents, not the much smaller, Maine-owned companies nearby. A textbook example of power politics.
Made public just days ago, the “consent order” plan rushes to a City Council vote on Monday, August 30th, at 7:00 p.m., in Room 114 at Westbrook High School. We hope you agree that having lawyers bypass Westbrook’s laws in this manner --- because that’s what a large foreign corporation demands --- does not deserve City Council support. Blasting on Spring Street is illegal, and should stay that way. Westbrook deserves far better than this.
NOT HERE, NOT NOW!
NO ASPHALT PLANT
with toxic emissions.
NO QUARRY EXPANSION
with steady heavy-duty diesel truck traffic.
NO EXPANDED MINING ACTIVITIES
with drilling, blasting, rock crushing and dust spewing into our air.
How to contact city officials, the Dept. of Environmental Protection and the media:
CITY OFFICIALS:
City Council
Ward 1:
Brendan Rielly
(207) 775-7271
brielly@westbrook.me.us
Ward 2:
Victor Chau
(207) 518-8887
vchau@westbrook.me.us
Ward 3:
Paul Emery
(207) 831-9899
pemery@westbrook.me.us
Ward 4:
Dotty Aube
(207) 854-2632
daube@westbrook.me.us
Ward 5:
Michael Sanphy
(207) 878-5531
msanphy@westbrook.me.us
At-large:
John O’Hara
(207) 854-9309
johara@westbrook.me.us
At-large:
Mike Foley
(207) 807-2115
mfoley@westbrook.me.us
Town Planner
Molly Just
(207) 854-0638
mjust@westbrook.me.us
MAINE DEPT. OF
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
Mark Stebbins
Oversight of Quarry Operations
(207) 822-6367
mark.n.stebbins@maine.gov
MEDIA
American Journal
Ben Bragdon, Managing Editor
Mail: P.O. Box 840
Westbrook, ME 04098
Phone: (207) 854-2577
Fax: (207) 854-0018
bbragdon@keepmecurrent.com
Portland Press Herald
Mail: Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 1460
Portland, ME 04104-5009
Fax: (207) 828-8154
letterstotheeditor@pressherald.com
Online Form: www.pressherald.com