Maine Department of Environmental Protection is now reviewing a proposed “concrete plant” off Nash Road in Windham where developer Peter Busque plans to create a 75-acre quarry.
In conjunction with the quarry, Auburn Concrete hopes to build a concrete plant that would consist of a 50-foot-high silo where cement dust and water would be measured with quarried rock and then pumped into mixing trucks.
Town officials are regarding this silo as an “accessory use” of Busque’s quarry, now under review by the Windham Planning Board.
Many Nash Road neighbors have already spoken out against the quarry claiming it would disrupt their lives. And now, new knowledge of the proposed concrete plant continues to stir the debate.
Last week, the quarry project drew much criticism at a crowded public hearing before the Planning Board.
Neighbors voiced their concerns about noise, harmful dust and traffic coming from the quarry. They also questioned whether the residential farmland is an appropriate place for a quarry.
Experts, hired by Busque to address these concerns, assured the public that noise would be buffered, dust would be controlled and traffic would not cause trouble at the Nash Road intersection of Route 302.
When residents asked about the potential silo, Planning Board officials told them that their questions would be answered at a later date.
Nash Road neighbor Jennifer Potter addressed the silo specifically in a letter she wrote to the Planning Board.
In the letter, she called the silo, “a hideous eyesore” and “a dangerous neighbor” that should not be invited into Windham because of health dangers that could lead to respiratory problems.
“Many of us have little kids that live on the Nash Road,” Potter said. “I don’t see how it’s going to be regulated enough. It’s in a residential area.”
This week, an anonymous pamphlet distributed to mailboxes around town alleged that a cement plant would pose grave health consequences to nearby neighbors.
“Did you expect Nash Road to become an industrial park with potential environmental consequences?” the pamphlet read.
The pamphlet urged neighbors to contact town officials and demand a stop to the project, saying the plant could release harmful dust into the air that cause cancer and other diseases.
But Jon Voisine, air license engineer for the Department of Environmental Protection, says dust from a concrete plant is not considered to be dangerous, but can cause common dust-related respiratory problems if unregulated. In his review of the project, Voisine said he will make sure the amount of dust that escapes the silo meets state regulations.
“The emissions from the operations shouldn’t be any worse than a road being dusty from sand thrown on it the winter before,” Voisine said.
Quarry operations themselves can create silica dust and prolonged exposure can lead to silicosis, an incurable lung disease, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).
In accordance with state and federal regulations, Busque said he plans to pave the access road and wet down quarried areas to help prevent dust from leaving the quarry grounds.
Cement dust would be trucked into the quarry and pumped into the silo through a hose. Inside, the dust would be measured with water and crushed rock from the quarry to create concrete as needed.
Busque would sell quarry rock to Auburn Concrete and deliver it into the silo via a conveyor belt.
Joel Cummings, vice president of R.A. Cummings Inc. which owns Auburn Concrete, is upset by the pamphlet allegations and believes this creates tension and mistrust between residents and developers.
“The irritating thing is nobody’s willing to stand up and ask these questions” of the company, Cummings said.
Cummings said there have been no health concerns at their concrete plant in Auburn, though neighbors have complained about noise from the mixing trucks.
The concrete plant is contingent upon the approval of Busque’s quarry. The company must also ask the town to revise its land-use ordinance to allow this cement silo on farmland.
Margaret Pinchbeck, another Nash Road resident, says the neighbors have hired a lawyer to advise them on what steps to take next.
“I’m surprised that they didn’t combine the two planning applications together,” Pinchbeck said of the quarry and silo plans. “I’ve looked at the farm-zone ordinance and what I can see is that a concrete plant is not allowed.”
The neighbors plan to ask the Town Council to put a moratorium on “mineral extraction” in Windham until the town’s ordinances are reviewed to determine if proper regulations are in place and if quarrying should be allowed on farmland.
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