The current debate in Westbrook concerning the expansion of the Pike quarry is eerily familiar to the debate in Gorham not to long ago with the Shaw Brothers quarry project and the citizens of Gorham.
The need to place heavy rock mining operations adjacent to sensitive high-tech industry and residential development is the product of our own making. It would make more sense to keep the high tech jobs near the urban centers and keep the heavy industry in areas that will have the least impact on the surrounding community. However, as the price of transportation grows, industries that provide the raw material to develop the land will want to be as close as possible to their respective markets. It is the cost of moving the product that drives the need to keep quarries in our urban neighborhoods. Maine is blessed with plenty of rock. It is not a rare natural resource that requires mining our urban landscape.
Years ago, when the ability to transport raw materials over the roadways was not technologically feasible, our forefathers used rail to transport products cheaply and quickly. When it became cheaper and faster to transport goods over the roadways, many of our New England railroads abandoned the tracks and sold off the right of ways.
Well, the times of cheap fuel are over and peak oil may be upon us. We should bring rail back to the people of Maine. Such action would allow the transportation of material like crushed stone, our often debated water, wood pellets, and of course people over the rails.
Imagine the quarry being located on a rural hill in western Maine and the only folks bothered by the blasting are the cows and the local dairy farmer who sends his milk to the creamery on the same rail line that the quarry operator ships his stone.
Could the lack of a comprehensive transportation policy that includes rail be linked to the need to put a quarry in every greater Portland community? The state has just purchased the last piece of real estate to open up the Mountain Division Rail line all the way to Fryeburg. Let us hope that some railway investor with capital can invest in this line.
Noah Miner
Gorham
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