WESTBROOK — Pike Industries won’t blast rock at its Spring Street quarry until the Maine Business and Consumer Court takes further action on a consent agreement meant to regulate activity at the site.
Whether Pike would blast rock during the next two weeks, as it had planned, has been in question since a Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling on June 14, saying the consent agreement approved by the business court in 2010 was flawed.
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Artel Inc. and Smiling Hill Farm, the nearby businesses that appealed the consent agreement, said the ruling made it illegal for Pike to blast rock, while Pike said it believed it could continue to operate. Regardless, both parties agreed, it would be up to the city to enforce a violation, if there was one.
The city has asked Pike not to blast rock until the matter goes back before the business court, but will allow the company to continue processing and transporting rock that’s on the site, according to a statement made this afternoon by Mayor Colleen Hilton.
The supreme court ruled that the consent agreement was flawed because it relied on the city to enforce the performance standards laid out in the agreement. Those include limits on truck traffic and the noise, vibration and frequency of blasts.
The high court said, by Maine law, the city can only enforce those regulations if they are written into a zoning ordinance.
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