Wednesday, October 06, 2010

EMC - slow motion train wreck in Southborough/Westborough

A reader who lives on Gilmore Rd sent this photo, showing the new road in red. It is being built out daily. I took the liberty of adding some blue outlines for the main rock pile sites, that I know about, and you can see pretty much that the red is going to hit the blue before long.

I sit here helpless, not knowing what to do, watching a slow moving train wreck. The Indians have been notified and I tried, briefly, to figure out some way to get a group of them and some rich potential donors to walk around in there legally (it is private land). Could not do it. Not enough preparatory leg work. How can I kick things up a notch? We need some kind of better organization and I have a long term plan - pretty hard to move forward working 10 hour days to feed the family etc...EMC permitting process was long gone before I heard about this. So you can go back and read about the rock piles that are there (click here and scroll down). I went back to take a goodbye look and saw that it was a late "Wachusett Tradition" site: rock piles with hollows and ski jumps (Now called wedge-shaped marker piles). Can we console ourselves knowing there are plenty of similar sites still undisturbed nearby? I feel like I failed but still do not know what I am supposed to do.

I should add that the smaller blue outline (near the top of the hill) actually may be part of a Sudbury Valley Trustees purchase, so perhaps that part of the hill will remain less disturbed.

Here is what I think we should do:
  • create a sub-committee within a respected land conservation group, like Subdury Valley Trustees
  • create a slush fund (any volunteer donors?) specific to this sub-committee
  • create a network of watchers
  • create a link with Indian Country Conservancy land preservation group of the Native Americans
  • be prepared for rapid response to threats with buy-out options for win-win solutions.

4 comments :

Tim MacSweeney said...

Sent out some emails to some reporters and activists who know more reporters and activists, and I'm thinking of finding more of the same...

pwax said...

I should probably also call EMC.

pwax said...

I wonder how come they get to build a road across a wetland?

Douglas Watts said...

Pwax -- I feel your chagrin, believe me. If you haven't even met with EMC yet, then you haven't started yet. They can pull the plug on this in a second. You need to meet with them. Just you, make your case, and present a viable alternative. They don't care anyways. They would love to get PR as "caring." You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. But you have to take the first step.