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Location: 04 Tremont Street,  Carver, MA

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  • Owner:  Federal Furnace Cranberry Co./Operator Gary Weston/Excavator G.Lopes Construction. Walter E. Morrison III, trustee of Federal Furnace Cranberry Co. It dissolved in 2022.

  • Volume of Earth Removed: 2,710,000 cubic yards according to ERC permits; likely more unaccounted for

  • Earth Removal Permit: Yes, the Carver Earth Removal Committee granted earth removal permits in 2006, 2008, 2015, 2019 under the pretense of agricultural excavation. A large portion of the mined area is being used for industrial solar and there is no agriculture on these portions of the site. In February, 2024, the town of Carver gave Pontiff a new earth removal permit for the site — for about 1.5 million cubic yards – about $15 million worth of sand and gravel. This is about 40,000 truck loads. On April 19, 2024, two residents filed a lawsuit to revoke the permit. See the lawsuit here.

  • Area Impacted: Federal Furnace Cranberry owns or owned a parcel of about 790 acres off Tremont Street abutting Myles Standish State Forest.  At least 102 acres have been mined 2010 to present at several locations across the site and about 479 acres have been impacted since 2001.  Cranberry bogs were installed in some areas after the mining. May, 2024: State refuses to stop illegal work. The state wetlands law prevents work when an appeal is pending. Pontiff has already started work at this site including clear cutting trees and hauling them off site. As of July 2024, the mine is in active operation. Read more here about Ten Residents request for a cease and desist.

  • Claimed Reason for Mining: Cranberry Agriculture; Large Scale Ground Mounted Solar: Syncartha Solar installing a project, July 2023. 

  • Solar: Yes

Below: mining in the Aquifer at the location of the Syncartha Solar installation, January 2021:

  • Wetlands and Waterways: Yes. 2021 Wetlands Order of Conditions for Syncartha Solar project; 2009 Wetlands Order of Conditions for mining and bog. In 2022, Save the Pine Barrens asked MassDEP to enforce the Wetlands Protection Act and the 2009 Wetlands Order of Conditions. No action has been taken by the agency. August 2024, legal appeal of the state’s wetlands permit for mining near river front area at site, conducting work that will impact a bordering vegetated wetland, and for unlawfully exempting the work from the Stormwater Standards.

  • Archaeological Impacts: Entirely within a Massachusetts Historic Commission Inventoried Area and Inventory Points: map below purple is inventoried area, blue dots are “points”. This area has been mined extensively and cranberry bogs

Satellite map below shows mining in Priority Habitat area 601 and in area of Massachusetts Historic Commission Inventory area and points

Satellite map below shows mining in the Massachusetts Historic Commission mapped area.

  • Environmental Justice Population:  Yes entirely within an EJ community (Income)

  • Ecological Impacts: Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP), BioMap3: Rare Species Core (and more): See map below showing mining in Priority Habitat 601. On August 1, 2024, CLWC demanded an environmental impact study. The state Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program issued a “conditional take” permit for the mining operation. August 1, 2024: CLWC demands environmental study. See the demand letter to MEPA here:

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  • Public Subsidies:

    • Mass Department of Agriculture, Cranberry Revitalization Grants, 2019 to 2022 total: ​​$124,000

    • USDA: Yes

    • Solar subsidies/SMART program: solar underway

 

Federal Furnace Cranberry Co. sold bogs in south Plymouth to EJ Pontiff Cranberry Co. in approximately 2018. The Plymouth site is being extensively mined under the pretense of building a “tailwater recovery pond” for EJ Pontiff Cranberry bogs. See the listing for 140 Firehouse Road, Plymouth MA in this report for details on the site.  In about 2017, Federal Furnace entered into a MOU with MassDEP and U.S. EPA to reduce pollutant loads discharged to White Island Pond. The Plymouth site is also approved for solar: floating solar by Borrego Solar (2 MW).

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