Middleboro Select Board approves earth removal plan despite water table concerns

MIDDLEBORO — After several hearings and a lengthy discussion regarding a reservoir expansion at a cranberry farm on Rocky Meadow Street, the Select Board approved a permit for the project at its Oct. 20 meeting. 

Brian Grady, the project’s engineer, presented his firm’s plan to remove a significant portion of earth from the site, but Select Board member Brian Giovanoni raised concerns about how the project might affect surrounding wells. 

He explained digging into the area can shift the entire water table, pushing water deeper into the ground. This can lower the water level of private wells at the houses surrounding the property. 

“When you say ‘It’s their property,’ yes it is, except for one thing — when they change the water table, it’s a Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a Middleboro problem,” Giovanoni said to Grady.

Giovanoni has raised similar concerns at previous hearings, and Grady returned to the board with a plan to install monitor wells before beginning the project. This would establish a baseline and show where the water table lies, and Grady said any drop detected will halt the project. 

Giovanoni also said he was concerned the landowners were interested in the project because of the possible profit from selling excavated materials, not for the benefit it would bring to their farm. 

Grady said the water reservoir is currently undersized by industry standards, and needs to expand because of water shortage issues. 

“It’s a generational family business, this is what they do,” Grady said. “They’re not coming here for the sand, they grow berries.”

He said while there is currently less money to be made in cranberry farming, the business is focused on agriculture, not extraction. 

Giovanoni said he had received messages from concerned homeowners who feared the project would dry up their wells.

One of these homeowners, Shirley Ezerins, said she appreciated Giovanoni’s comments as she owns a home abutting the farm. She said she is concerned with how area cranberry bogs have expanded recently and wanted to see more effective water utilization strategies.

“It is not just their water, the water is underneath, and so it does impact a lot of people,” Ezerins said. 

Select Board members Teresa Farley, Thomas White and Bill Pike, supported the proposal, and White said owners Wayne and Elaine Hannula are upstanding members of the community who he believes will make decisions that will benefit the town. 

Select Board member Mark Germain raised several concerns, including regarding conditions at the project site and the self-policing approach of the engineering firm. After the board agreed to require the firm to report weekly water level numbers to them and further discuss traffic concerns, Germain supported the project as well.

Although the board passed a motion to allow the permit, Giovanoni maintained his opposition.

A discussion and vote on traffic allowances — how many trucks can enter and exit the site each day — will be added to the next Select Board meeting agenda.