SABATTUS – Selectmen will take no action on a petition from a local group seeking restrictions on mining operations.

The Sabattus Hill Huggers presented a petition to selectmen in August after a protest at the Town Hall.

Acting on legal advice from the Maine Municipal Association, Board of Selectmen Chairman William Luce called the petition “a collective expression of the political sentiment of the parties that signed it as opposed to a legal document requiring action.”

Petitions must be addressed to selectmen and must be signed by at least 10 percent of the number of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election “in order to trigger any legal requirements by the board,” Luce said.

There is no law that attaches legal requirements for a petition addressed to a planning board, he added.

The Hill Huggers’ petition asked the Planning Board to honor the performance standards of the town’s Site Plan Review Ordinance by:

• Stopping all mining operations active over any acquifer recognized by the state;

• Stopping all mining operations active within 250 feet of any pond, lake or river, including Sabattus Pond;

• Stopping all mining operations having an adverse effect on the scenic or natural beauty of the area;

• Amending the Site Plan Review Ordinance to apply to existing operations as well as new proposals.

The petition had 203 signatures.

But, after a review of the petition, town officials determined that all signatures were invalid, because the petition was not notarized, said Town Clerk Katie Doble.

In addition, many signatures were rejected for other reasons, such as duplicate signing and not being a registered town voter, Doble said.

On Friday, David Dalphonse, head of the Hill Huggers, had not yet received written word from town officials, but he responded to their decision.

“So that a dozen contractors can make a great deal of money, town officials are willing to let these contractors level these hills, ‘pit out’ the town and endanger the people’s water supply,” Dalphonse said.

He vowed not to give up the fight.

“Town officials may believe if they cover up their heads this will go away. It will not,” he said.

In August, Dalphonse called his petition “a preventative type thing.”

Excavators refueling over acquifers pose the threat of potential petroleum contamination from the equipment, Dalphonse said then. But he has said all along that he has no evidence of any actual contamination to the town’s water supply by excavators and other gravel-pit equipment.

Dalphonse lives at 43 F. Sanborn Road on the east shore of Sabattus Lake. A gravel pit owned by St. Laurent & Son Excavating is about 60 feet from his house. Earlier in the year, Dalphonse and the Hill Huggers lobbied selectmen to bring that pit into compliance with town zoning code by making its owners get a permit.

But town officials told Dalphonse that the pit is grandfathered. In a side issue, Dalphonse and St. Laurent & Son are involved in a lawsuit over whether the contractor has been digging on Dalphonse’s property.

The hearings for that lawsuit have concluded and the parties are awaiting a decision, Dalphonse said.

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