By Barbara Lance Lauze,Special to the Sun Journal

MECHANIC FALLS – A bulldozer killed one of her free-range chickens, her goats are aborting and a mudslide poured onto her property.

Paula Stotts is unhappy about the fallout from work on a new water tank on the hill above her home on Standpipe Road. She’s concerned about possible pollution of her organic farm, danger to her animals and inconvenience to her family.

She called the state Department of Environmental Protection when she discovered a diesel spill and “a mountain of mud” sliding toward her yard.

“Our worst fears have come true,” Stotts said.

She said town officials have been unresponsive to complaints from her and her husband, Mark.

“Oh, my God – just the opposite,” said Town Manager Dana Lee. He said the Stotts have complained almost daily about the project, which began in October and is expected to continue until May.

“We’ve been extremely responsive and extremely respectful,” Lee said. Every complaint has been investigated and no citations have been issued, he said.

He said the town has used “every barricade known to man,” including hay bales and shavings, to keep runoff from the Stotts’ property.

But the site is on a very steep slope, needed to get the tank high enough to provide water pressure to the entire town, and the weather has been warm and wet, Lee said.

“It’s created an unusual amount of mud,” he said.

In response to the mudslide, DEP official Colin Clark instructed K&K Excavation of Turner to redirect the runoff from Stotts’ property and to put down hay to help with the erosion.

Ann Hemingway, an oil and hazardous materials specialist at DEP, said a small diesel spill, a couple of gallons at most, had occurred at the site. K&K agreed to dig up the contaminated soil and dispose of it at Commercial Paving in Scarborough, which recycles oil, Hemingway said.

The $920,000 water tank project was approved by town councilors, who also serve as trustees of the Water Department, Lee said. It is being funded through the state’s Safe Drinking Water program.

The town initially offered the Stotts 5 to 8 acres in exchange for an easement to the landlocked parcel on which the water tank would be built. But the town got less land than expected, 11 acres instead of 17, Lee said.

The town offered the Stotts 1 acre instead of 5. After “ugly negotiations,” during which the threat of eminent domain was raised, they agreed to the deal, Paula Stotts said.

“Flat-out not true,” Lee said. He said the parties sat at the table and negotiated “like good neighbors” until an agreement was reached.

Stotts also alleged that the work has affected her goats. Since blasting began at the work site, three goats have miscarried, she said, adding that it’s the first time in five years that any have miscarried.

The goats were bred in the fall because the family believed work would begin in the spring of 2006, she said.

Lee said work began early because the construction company had an opening in its schedule and the weather was mild enough for digging. There was no promise that it would start in the spring, he said.

Stotts said she is not seeking monetary compensation. She simply wants her farm and her family to be treated with respect.

“They’ve treated us like idiots for the past three years,” she said. “When I voice my concerns to the town, they say they understand, but when I actually try to get them to be accountable for what they agreed to, they tell me I’m being whiny and making mountains out of molehills.”

She has asked to address the Town Council at its next meeting, Feb. 6.

K&K Excavation officials, including site foreman Paul Mitchell, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Copy the Story Link