WINDHAM – The Windham Planning Board voted unanimously Monday night to increase the depth and acreage of Peter Busque’s quarry operation on Nash Road.

Since it is a judicial body, the Planning Board’s decision was based on approval Busque received Dec. 18 from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which studied the issue for a year and required Busque to install test wells to monitor groundwater movement as well as the consistency of the rock below ground.

As a result of the approvals, Busque will now be allowed to excavate up to 150 feet below the perched water table. A perched water table is the level at which trapped water in bedrock is first found, as opposed to the groundwater table, which is the level of freely flowing groundwater.

He also will be able to mine 75.5 acres, rather than 50 acres. One stipulation the Planning Board added Monday night was installation of temporary fencing around the excavation work area.

In reaction to the board’s decision, a relieved Busque said it’s been “a tough six years … I think my blood pressure has dropped,” referring to his nearly six-year-long battle with town and state regulators to get approvals to move forward on the quarry.

Busque, who is a member of the Windham Town Council and has come under fire for having close connections with Planning Board members, said the DEP’s approval process was stringent, requiring him to drill many test wells and to monitor them for at least a year.

“We dug 14 wells and monitored them for two years. They only required one year. Everything has been addressed, scientifically,” Busque said.

According to Mark Stebbins, mining coordinator for DEP, “the rock is very tight” below Busque’s quarry, and “there’s not a whole lot of connectivity” of fractures in the bedrock. The lack of fracturing in the rock, Stebbins said, means when Busque blasts to break up the rock, the water in nearby rock will tend to stay in place, reducing risk to neighboring streams or wells.

That is little consolation to abutters, several of whom were at Monday night’s meeting. The neighbors, who formed the Windham Preservation Committee in 2005 when Busque first proposed the quarry and still have $40,000 in unpaid legal fees, are upset with the town for granting the approval and are contemplating an appeal.

“It’s been such a long process, honestly I think people are burned out and discouraged. They say you can’t fight city hall, and in Windham that’s absolutely true, so we’ll see what happens,” said the group’s spokeswoman, Margaret Pinchbeck, who lives across Route 302 from the quarry.

Pinchbeck said neighbors are mostly worried about the impact on their well water as well as the quality of the adjacent Colley Wright Brook.

When asked about neighbors’ concerns, Stebbins said the state’s approval wasn’t granted without significant study and that if contamination to neighbors’ wells occurs in the future, Busque would be held financially liable, something Planning Board Chairman David Nadeau confirmed.

“If, in fact, people’s wells get contaminated, there is a fallback in place, that’s part of the agreement,” Nadeau said.

Nadeau said the town has already conducted sampling from each of the abutters’ wells to provide a baseline for any future complaint.

“All wells around there have been tested for quality and volume, so these people are all protected if something happens,” Nadeau said.

Quarry increase

Busque also received approval to increase the physical size of the Nash Road quarry from 50 acres to 75.5 acres. The size increase will still require buffering between the pit and neighboring homes. Busque will need to adhere to 150-foot buffers from Route 302 and Nash Road, 100-foot buffers from neighboring lot lines, and 200-foot buffers from any nearby residence.

The 75.5-acre request that was granted Monday night was also approved by DEP in December. It is the size Busque originally applied for in 2005.

That first application was met with stiff resistance from the Windham Town Council, which denied him a license for mineral extraction. Busque then trimmed his request to 50 acres and incorporated wider buffers making himself, in effect, the only abutter. That application was approved in 2007. But because of the economy, Busque has made applications for amendments to the original quarry license, the recent requests regarding size and depth being the third such amendment.

“I’ve lost a lot of time, and it’s just about killed me, that along with the housing market,” Busque said, referring to his quarrying and housing subdivision enterprises. Busque owns a 116-lot subdivision on Boundary Road in Standish that he said isn’t selling well. He had proposed a 60-acre subdivision off Route 85 in Raymond – and even cut an access driveway to it – but that project has foundered, as well. Busque also owns the 100-acre Libby Pit off Route 35 in Standish that he said is “doing all right.”

So, while the recent amendment approvals worry neighbors, the increase in the dimensions of the Nash Road quarry has brightened Busque’s business outlook.

“The economy seems to be looking up, but I thought that about this time last year and was wrong. But I’d say things are turning around,” he said.

The quarry is licensed to operate year-round, but Busque said winter snow and ice bars him from operating in colder months. He expects to start up in April. He is licensed to operate from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Blasting can take place 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. There is no restriction on the amount of blasting that can take place. No blasting and no excavation can take place on the weekend, although the quarry can be open for other uses 6:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday.