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Location: 13A Gate Street, Map 37
Lot 1-L, Carver MA

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  • Owner:  Bayside Agricultural Inc. 

  • Volume of Earth Removed: unknown

  • Permit: Mining permit unknown; dual use solar approval from Carver Planning Board, 2018. The project “would create new agricultural land” to grow crops under the panels. REDP claimed there would be crops growing under the panels. As of 2022 there are no crops.

  • Area Impacted: 22 acres; 170 acres of agricultural land on the site with 30 acres of bogs.

  • Claimed Reason for Mining: Unknown

  • Solar: Yes. Dual use/agricultural on land that was strip mined. Solar developer is Renewable Energy Development Partners LLC (REDP), a spin off of A.D. Makepeace Cranberry Co.. REDP and Bayside Agricultural, Inc. similar projects on Ward Street in Carver and in Rochester MA on the Eldredge Bogs. REDP is also installing solar canopy on A.D. Makepeace Swan Holt bogs. When asked at a public hearing when the Gate Street, Carver MA “dual use” project on the “newly created” agricultural land (that was strip mined first) would have a farm plan, president Hank Ouimet said the farm plan was in the works. REDP was responsible for clear-cutting 25 acres of the Herring River Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) in about 2015 for large ground mounted solar then sold to an out of state venture capital company. On its Oct. 21, 2019 NOI application for a 2017 NPDES Construction Permit, Ouimet made a number of inaccurate statements including “pre development the land was use[d] for agriculture”  (it was used for sand mining), and stated that “earth- disturbing activities” had not commenced on the project site. Satellite images show earth disturbing activities starting in at least 2010 and no part of the solar site was used for agriculture. Ouimet did not accurately represent the acres of deforestation on NPDES related application to US Fish and Wildlife Service.

  • Plymouth Carver Sole Source Aquifer: Yes, located in Aquifer area.

  • Wetlands and Waterways: Yes, surrounded by wetlands.

  • Ecosystem: Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP), BioMap3 Core Habitat Components: Rare Species Core

  • Public Subsidies: Bayside Agricultural, Inc. MDAR Cranberry Revitalization Grant subsidies, 2019 to 2022 $123,000; Solar subsidies/SMART program

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