The Dec. 13 American Journal had an extensive, detailed story on the continuing discussion between Pike Industries and its neighbors around the Spring Street quarry.
On Page 6 of the AJ, the sixth paragraph describes an “inconsistency
cited by Chief Justice Humphrey … the consent agreement that requires
Pike to use synthetic screens and a urethane liner in crushers and maintain those components, or their substantial equivalents to ensure maximum effectiveness in reducing noise levels associated with crushing and screening.”
In regards to that language, I would respectfully ask the owner of Smiling Hill Farms, who I believe, is working on building several hundred acres of green or hothouses in order to grow tomatoes year round on a man-made hill adjacent to the Calpine power station and the CMP substation switchyard.
The equipment in the substation switchyard that is on constant alert for any faults due to energized equipment failure or a weather-caused power outage is tested at scheduled times with the Calpine power station in service. I had performed that testing in the recent past. I was aged several years on one morning when testing some of that equipment when a contractor dumping a load of clean fill from a multi-axle dump truck lowered the dump fast enough (are the contractors on a tight schedule?) to cause the steel tailgate to slam loudly against the dump body – just as I was initiating a test that in real-life conditions would open a circuit breaker. The noise of the tailgate striking the dump body was exactly like the noise of a circuit breaker opening under load.
Perhaps, those dump trucks should be mandated by law to have a urethane liner installed on either the rear edge of the dump body or completely around the inside edge of the tailgate to decrease the loud noise of steel striking steel, and in turn, prevent a CMP technician from having a heart attack when he or she is doing federally required testing of its protective relaying equipment in an energized substation switchyard. I am not joking.
Dennis Marrotte
Westbrook
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