The owner of a cranberry farm off Hedges Pond Road in Cedarville is seeking town approval to remove 2 million cubic yards of sand and gravel from the site to build a new bog, expand an existing bog, and dig a new six-acre reservoir to help manage water on the property.
The plan, which is likely to be met with opposition from environmental groups and neighbors, is the second large development project proposed this year that involves substantial earth removal off Hedges Pond Road.
Historically known as the Mountain Hill Bogs, the property is now called Landers Farm. It’s part of the P.A. Landers Inc. group of companies that has several sand and gravel operations in the region, along with a concrete plant in Plymouth.
According to the application filed with the town, the site is 129.91 acres, which includes 17.2 acres of cranberry bogs. After the proposed expansion, the farm would have 26.43 acres of bogs and the new six-acre water reservoir.
The project would be built in phases over six to eight years. The first phase would entail the excavation and construction of the reservoir, also known in the cranberry industry as a tailwater pond. The work would involve 25.43 acres and would require the removal of 1,480,853 cubic yards of sand and gravel.
For comparison, the active earth removal project in the Plymouth Industrial Park, visible from Route 3 north, is permitted for 488,000 cubic yards of earth removal.
The second phase of the Landers project would expand and replant an existing bog, followed by construction of a 5.85-acre bog in the final phase.
Landers is asking for up to 40 truckloads of material be hauled off site every day during construction. The trucking route would leave the Landers property via Hedges Pond Road then go south to State Road and eventually to Route 3.
Neither Landers company officials nor the engineering firm that filed the application on the company’s behalf responded to requests for comment.
The project is expected to prompt opposition from several groups with concerns about how the earth removal would affect the neighborhood and the region’s groundwater aquifer, which is the sole source of public drinking water in Plymouth, Carver, and parts of Kingston, Bourne, Plympton, and Wareham.
The Plymouth-based Community Land and Water Coalition presented the Select Board a petition with more than 1,200 signatures on Oct. 22 asking for an immediate moratorium on “sand mining” in Plymouth. The petition was not specifically in response to the Landers proposal.
The coalition has long fought against cranberry bog expansion projects that it claims are a pretense for mining valuable sand.
Donald Williams, a Plymouth Town Meeting member and president of the Herring Ponds Watershed Association, has not yet seen the Landers application, but he expects it will be problematic. “We are concerned because when you remove sand, you are exposing the groundwater to more pollution,” he said.
The Landers application for an earth removal permit was filed on Oct. 18 and is under review by town planning and development staff. That process will include a peer review of the proposal done by a third-party engineering firm hired by the town to comment on the project as designed. Once the peer review is completed, town staff will prepare a report for the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals.
After the town staff review, there will be a three-step public process for the project.
The neighborhood gets the first opportunity to comment and ask questions when the project is presented to the Cedarville Steering Committee. After that, the Planning Board will review the project and make an advisory recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals, which has jurisdiction to decide on earth removal permits.
The Planning Board review is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 4 and the Zoning Board of Appeals is tentatively scheduled to hear the project on Dec. 16.
Michael Cohen can be reached at michael@plymouthindependent.org.