SWAMPSCOTT — Residents near the town’s quarry are saying the recent blasts are more disruptive and happening daily, some even causing structural damage to homes.
More than half a dozen residents showed up to Wednesday’s Select Board meeting and raised a concern to the members regarding the recent blasts from Aggregate Industries (AI), a United-Kingdom based building material company with a town site located at 30 Danvers Road. Some spoke and stated they have experienced structural and cosmetic damage, a film of dust has made its way into their homes, and the blasts are scaring elderly neighbors, children, and pets.
“I’ve lived here for seven years and they have never been this bad,” Nichols Street resident Ana Lanzilli told the Item. “Some of my neighbors who have been here 45 years even said they have never been this bad.”
AI has been blasting, or drilling holes and putting dynamite in the huge rock to create profitable smaller rocks they can turn into stone and concrete, since around the 1930s, according to DPW Director/Assistant Town Administrator of Operations Gino Cresta. While there have always been complaints about the blasting, said the Windsor Avenue resident, the ones on August 14 and August 30 were more intense than usual.
Something changed that triggered the blasts to become more disruptive, said Lanzilli, and she and her neighbors just want to know what it is. The two recent blastings caused some residents to deal with items falling off their walls and after trembles that could be felt when the blast was finished, she said.
“I’ve had to replace a supporting beam on my deck that shouldn’t have to be replaced for another 12 years,” Lanzilli said. “On top of that, it’s really, really scary and feels like an earthquake or like your actual house is going to collapse on top of you, especially since they are unexpected, even with the sirens that are supposed to go off before they blast. You can never prepare for that kind of impact, especially in this day and age.”
Lanzilli said she hopes AI will have better communication about the type of blasts that are causing these significant disruptions and how frequent they are going to be. She also said it would be nice if the company reached out to neighbors and offered to help clean the film dust being created inside and outside of people’s homes.
“With someone like myself who has lived in the surrounding area forever, we expect the blasts because the quarry was there long before I,” said Cresta. “But lately, the blasts have been stronger than usual. “It’s always been my understanding that way back then, the area wasn’t a real developed a part of town. Going back to the ’50s or ’60s, all the houses were just camps and cottages, so as the area got more and more developed, that’s when the complaints began. I will say though, AI has always been very responsive when it comes to those complaints.”
Jocelyn Gerst, vice president of U.S. marketing and communications for AI, said the local workers have recently been reshaping the quarry floor to be able to absorb more rainfall and avoid flooding. To do that, she said they had to blast downwards, which forced the vibrations to travel through the ground, where they are more easily felt.
“The quarry’s focus will soon be shifting back to the more typical mining procedure where the effects of the blast dissipate, lessening the vibrations you may feel,” said Gerst. “We also are exploring ways to improve our neighborhood notification system … While you can often hear and feel the quarry blasts, these are carefully calculated blasts done in accordance with local laws focused on keeping homes and properties safe. The mining industry is a heavily regulated one and AI is committed to working cooperatively with all its regulatory authorities.”
