WESTBROOK — Pike Industries blasted rock in its Spring Street quarry this afternoon for the first time since 2008.
Just after 1:30 p.m., Gary Swanson heard a rumble in the distance and felt the floor move beneath him while sitting at a table at his Oriole Street house.
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“That was a good one,” said Swanson, who was an outspoken opponent of Pike’s quarrying operations.
“If this was your house, would you be concerned?” he said.
Following a years-long, high-profile debate, the quarrying company received a permit to blast rock from the city last month, after staff determined the company had fulfilled its obligations to make buffering and other improvements to the site.
Pike conducted blasts last spring to build an access road to the quarry, one of the site improvements required in a consent agreement reached by the city, Pike and Idexx Laboratories. Idexx is a neighboring company that first contested Pike’s right to quarry rock on Spring Street.
But two of those blasts violated the consent agreement — one for being too loud and another for occurring too late in the day — and the city issued a $3,000 fine to Pike.
The consent agreement was reached in the fall of 2010, after the years-long debate, which played out in front of local boards and in court and drew in other nearby businesses and residents.
The agreement limits Pike to eight blasts per calendar year. John Koris, Pike’s environmental manager, said the company will only conduct four this year. The other three are planned for next week.
The first blast was initially scheduled for Tuesday and then rescheduled for Thursday, but was called off both times due to poor weather conditions, which can intensify the effects of the blast. Today’s blast is scheduled to go off between 1 and 2 p.m.
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