Community Land & Water Coalition

06/13/2026

This letter is calling for Select Board members Canty and Golden to resign over the Landers property deal in Cedarville. https://www.plymouthindependent.org/your-view/

06/12/2026

Despite the overwhelming public sentiment for conservation of Indigenous lands and forests in Plymouth, the Select Board voted for more destruction.

Clearly, they are not listening to the public. Check out this letter to the editor. https://www.plymouthindependent.org/your-view-environment-could-use-less-development/

06/12/2026

This Letter to the Editor of the puts the Select Board's vote to make a deal with a developer over the Landers property even more shocking. The leaders on the Select Board have shown a complete disregard for Native American history here in "America's Hometown."

LETTER EXCERPTS:
Yet with the conflicts of interest involved in this decision as reported by the Plymouth Independent on June 4th, neoliberalism might prevail as it does in far too many land-use decisions at all scales of the colonial state.

Despite the egregiousness of colonial-capitalist destruction, there is another way to live on these lands – millennia of place-based Indigenous lifeways are proof. Yet the commodification of earth is not commensurable with this way.

For those of us who are not indigenous to these lands, our ancestors too once lived in right-relationship with earth before their common lands were enclosed and commodified. Excavating the histories of colonization within our own ancestries—rather than the sand beneath our feet—may help us better understand the systems driving ecological destruction in all its forms on the lands we inhabit today.

– Julia Chase

The scale of global ecological collapse can feel overwhelming to face, but the destruction of the planet is harder to ignore when it is happening in our own neighborhoods. There are at least 110 documented sand and gravel mines in the Plymouth-Carver Aquifer region, with at least 44 located in the c...

06/12/2026

After weeks of closed-door discussions and a wave of public criticism, the Select Board Tuesday cleared the way for a housing developer to buy 138 acres of formerly protected land in Cedarville, with the deciding votes cast by two members who hold personal and political ties to him. The 3-2 decision...

06/11/2026

Here's the original map from the Massachusetts State House of the Herring Pond Wampanoag lands in Plymouth and Bourne. The area in Plymouth is known as the Great Lot in Cedarville. This is where massive sand mining is occurring at 71 Hedges Pond Road, and where PA Landers has been mining for years. Now, the Plymouth Select Board entered into a memorandum of understanding with a developer to do "incidental" sand mining on another portion of the Herring Tribe Great Lot.

06/10/2026

Last night the Town of Plymouth Select Board waived the Town's right to conserve 130 acres off Hedges Pond Road. This is part of the Great Lot, historic and cultural lands of Indigenous people.

This is part of the PA Landers sand and gravel mine that destroyed acres of land and subjected neighbors to incessant sand and gravel mining and trucking in their residential neighborhood. This was the chance to restore the land and save the remaining part of the Great Lot and forested uplands.

Instead, three Select Board members announced they voted for a closed door deal made with developer Matt Sheridan, a "good friend" of Select Board members Kevin Canty and David Golden. Chair Iaquinto went along. Members Keohan and Quintal voted to preserve the land. They lost. The Town of Plymouth lost.

The 3 Select Board members agreed to let Sheridan do "incidental" sand and gravel mining. Abutting the Landers site is the EJ Pontiff 33 acre sand mine on the Cedarville Conservation Area at 71 Hedges Pond Road-- approved by the Town as "incidental sand mining." That means they try to say its not a sand mine, it's just "incidental" to normal land development. Who's kidding who?

These pictures of this 33 acre sand mine is what "incidental" sand mining looks like in Plymouth. This was approved as "incidental" by the Building Inspector, Planning Board and ZBA.

Why did these 3 Select Board members vote for more sand mining? Just drive by to see "incidental" sand mining at 71 Hedges Pond Road.

These same boards also approved the sand mining on Route 3 as "incidental."

Plymouth Independent Select Board Member Deb Iaquinto Town of Plymouth, MA WCVB Channel 5 Boston Sustainable Plymouth Plymouth Stewardship Alliance Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Cape Cod Times

06/05/2026

A dangerous sand mining operation off of Spring Street in Carver and Plympton has been desecrating the environment and harming Massachusetts residents with emissions of dust and noise for years. Now, the company wants to expand.

Under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) the expansion requires a "notice of project change" and a review to determine whether the plans "avoid, mitigate and minimize" damage to the environment.

Demand a full environmental study of the cumulative impacts of all the sand mining, business park, and housing development!

Take Action!

Click on this link to write a letter.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protect-massachusetts-residents-from-dangerous-sand-mining/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWM5opbh5GI

SLT Construction Carver, MA

06/05/2026

Tomorrow!

Join us for Plymouth’s Community Conversation on Conservation and Chapter 61A.

This is an opportunity for residents, advocates, and organizations to come together and discuss the future of open space and land use in Plymouth — including the opportunity that was presented this week to conserve two important parcels off Hedges Pond Road.

🗓 Saturday June 6
⏰ 2 pm – 5 pm
📍 Plymouth Public Library

Bring your questions, ideas, and vision for Plymouth’s future.

Everyone is welcome.

06/05/2026

Throughout Southeastern Massachusetts residents are raising awareness of the impacts of on their health. This letter from a Carver MA resident was published in the national news outlet, Kaiser Family Foundation News.

Silicosis Hits Close to Home

Silicosis is not just an occupational hazard (“As Lung Disease Threatens Workers, Lawmakers Seek Protections for Countertop Manufacturers,” March 12). My husband and I live next door to a now-completed (we think) sand-mining operation, where the property owner digs sand to sell. There are numerous sand mine operations going on here in Carver, Massachusetts, as well as in Wareham and https://kffhealthnews.org/letter-to-the-editor/urgent-care-abortion-organ-donors-chatbots-medical-debt-april-2026/

Every day, from 2011 to 2024, our property was covered in silica sand and/or sand. If we opened our door to go out, we’d end up with a coating of silica dust on everything in our home. We could not comprehend how dangerous breathing in the dust was. Well, my husband was diagnosed with silicosis recently. I, too, have the silica dust and nodules in my lungs and have received a preliminary diagnosis of “restrictive lung disease consistent with silicosis.”

I have been referred to a specialist, as I also have severe rheumatoid arthritis, which may have been caused by breathing in the silica dust (according to an article on research from Sweden).

Our hometown has the best sand in the world. The property owners are making millions from selling it.

— Josephine Beadling; Carver, Massachusetts
Maura Healey Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Town of Carver

06/04/2026

In 2018, SLT Construction obtained a MEPA environmental review Certificate for a 43 acre of mostly undeveloped and undisturbed land on Spring Street in Carver and Plympton MA. The Certificate adopts SLT's description of the project. It says the sand mining and business park development will "alter 9.95 acres" and have "33.75 acres of open space". That open space is supposed to be used to "avoid, minimize and mitigate" the environmental damage from the 9.95 acre project.

Now, almost the 43 acre-entire site has been strip mined and some warehouses built in Carver. SLT is seeking permission to build housing on the Plympton portion of the sand mine.

Use our link below to send a comment in to MEPA about the project. Tell them:

- The new expansion of sand mining and building in Plympton requires a full Environmental Impact Report.
- The 33 acres needs to be permanently conserved as open space.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protect-massachusetts-residents-from-dangerous-sand-mining/

Watch the footage below to see the environmental impact of this expanding mining project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WQT1KWtwJE

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