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Location: 30 Raffaele Road, Plymouth, MA

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  • Owner:  Kingstown Trucking/Brad Cushing 

  • Volume of Earth Removed: 850,000 Cubic Yards

  • Permit: Yes

  • Area Impacted: 22 Acres

  • Claimed Reason for Mining: Cranberry bog development and one residential home; bait and switch to solar with closed door decision by Town Planning Department working with mining operators lawyer, Bob Betters. The landowner used the ruse of “cranberry bog” agriculture to get an earth removal permit. After removing at least 850,000 cubic yards, Cushing asked the Town for permission to put in a ground mounted solar project with Blue Wave solar instead. A letter from the Town Planner shows that the Planner approved the switch to solar. There was never a public hearing or public input for this change of use. A few years later, Cushing made a deal with the Plymouth County Commissioners to level a hill on the abutting County owned land and to excavate below grade to extract a large volume of earth. The hole still exists. The Plymouth Zoning Board of Appeals approved this ruse also. The claimed end use by Cushing was a solar project. It is not built and instead a 30 foot hole in the ground sits where a hill once existed. It was reported to be the highest hill left in the area. Concerned residents sued the Town to try to stop the ZBA’s earth removal permit but lost in court on legal standing and the project went ahead. The County Commissioners are now proposing a racetrack-casino at the site.

  • Water Supply: Yes 

  • Plymouth Carver Sole Source Aquifer: Yes

  • Wetlands and Waterways: Unknown

  • Archaeological Impacts: Unknown

  • Public Subsidies:

    • Solar subsidies

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Visit www.savethecountywoodlot.com for more information about the Town’s complicity in allowing the same operator to do mining on the adjacent land owned by Plymouth County

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