Skip to the story | Text edition home | Full site

Reported by us | Wareham

Makepeace says Wareham solar work has begun where a filing says up to 1.2 million cubic yards may be removed

A 2021 state filing for the project said part of the site could be cleared for agricultural purposes, which it called sand mining, before the panels go in. The town has not said whether an earth removal permit or exemption is on file.

By the SC360 Breaking and Public Safety Desk | Published Oct. 18, 2026 | Last verified Nov. 14, 2026, 9:58 p.m. ET

WAREHAM A.D. Makepeace says site work has started for a solar array at 140 Tihonet Road in Wareham, where a 2022 state filing said up to 1.2 million cubic yards of material may be removed.

The Community Land and Water Coalition, a Plymouth-based environmental group, calls the work sand mining and says the town has not told it whether the Select Board issued an earth removal permit or granted an exemption. Wareham's bylaw requires a Select Board permit to remove earth, with exceptions for farming and for grading tied to permitted construction. The coalition has opposed the company's projects before state reviewers, and its lawyer has represented residents suing over this one.

"Site work has started at 140 Tihonet Road for an approved solar project," Linda Burke, A.D. Makepeace's vice president of marketing and communication, wrote to South Coast 360 on Thursday, Nov. 12. Later in the same email she wrote, "This is nothing more than site preparation for an approved project as occurs across America daily. Again, this has no impact on Tihonet Pond."

The company's answer

Burke wrote that the work is "nowhere near a dam, fish ladder, or herring run" and that the project was approved by the town in 2020 and 2021 and at the state level. Her reply did not say whether an earth removal permit or exemption covers the work, or answer our Nov. 10 question on whether the sand stays on company land for bog work or leaves the site. She sent two photos of the herring ladder at Tihonet Pond. "We installed the herring ladder many years ago and made significant repairs recently," she wrote. "As you can see from the attached photos, it is fully functional and ready to accommodate herring when they return to Tihonet Pond next spring."

The coalition's records request

Meg Sheehan, a lawyer who works without pay for the coalition, emailed South Coast 360 links to photos and to a drone video the group posted on YouTube Nov. 10 under the title "2026-11-10 Wareham Tihonet Road." Her email called it "Makepeace's mining operation," under the subject line "AD Makepeace sand mining leveling hill next to Tihonet Pond." She wrote that the coalition had sent the town a public records request, dated Nov. 10, and is "looking into legal options."

The request asks Wareham for every earth removal permit issued to A.D. Makepeace companies, any agricultural exemption the company claimed or the town granted, inspection and enforcement records, and all communications about earth removal at 140 Tihonet Road. Sheehan wrote two days later that the town had not acknowledged it or returned the group's calls.

What the 2021 filing said about sand

The project's March 15, 2021, environmental filing with the state, prepared by Beals and Thomas for Borrego Solar Systems, the solar developer on the project at the time, describes a 66.2-acre site east of Tihonet Pond and Tihonet Road, with about 65.3 acres to be cleared for an array rated at about 5 megawatts of alternating current. Runoff drains outward in every direction from the site's hilltop ridge, with the flow to the west heading toward Tihonet Road and Tihonet Pond, the filing says. The same form lists Tihonet Pond as an impaired water for dissolved oxygen.

The filing also said in three places that part of the site could be cleared for sand tied to the company's agricultural operations, and once called that sand mining. "Regardless of the solar project, a portion of the 140 Tihonet Road PV+ES Site may be cleared for agricultural purposes (sand mining) prior to installation of the solar modules, transformers, and inverters," it reads.

Estimates of how much earth will come off the hill vary: a March 5, 2021, letter to the Planning Board from Charles L. Rowley, the consulting engineer who reviewed the plans for the board, put it at "approximately 2,000,000 yards of sand necessary for grading the site according to the plan," and Sheehan cites that figure. A project spokesperson said that month the plan needed 1.3 million cubic yards, not the 2.2 million estimated earlier, The Wareham Week reported. The 2022 Final Environmental Impact Report, filed with the state for ADM Development Services, which shares A.D. Makepeace's 158 Tihonet Road address, says "up to 1.2 million cubic yards of material may be removed from this site" and that state and local authorities approved the project.

Town votes in 2021

The Planning Board voted unanimously in March 2021 to grant the special permit, and board members agreed earth removal questions belonged to the Board of Selectmen, now the Select Board, The Wareham Week reported. The project's application said the earth would be used for the company's agricultural purposes, which the company said are exempt from the bylaw, the paper reported. Rowley's letter had recommended that the special permit be "subject to the receipt of approval" for the sand removal under the town's earth removal bylaw.

The Conservation Commission voted unanimously April 7, 2021, to approve the project with standard and added conditions, the paper reported. The 2021 state filing lists its wetlands case as MassDEP file number 076-2611. On April 27, 2021, the Board of Selectmen voted 3-2 to waive the town's right to buy the land, which was taxed as farmland under Chapter 61A, according to The Wareham Week.

The state environmental certificate issued June 9, 2021, on the three Tihonet-area solar projects asked for a final filing that would "disclose the nature and extent of past sand excavation activities" to the extent they could be tied to projects the state had already reviewed, according to the 2022 report. The state has reviewed the company's Tihonet development in phases since 2007. The report answered that earth removal there "was undertaken for agricultural purposes only except as previously summarized herein" and that "records of these activities were not maintained as they did not involve commercial earth removal."

The town's earth removal bylaw

Wareham's earth removal bylaw, adopted in 2006, says no earth "shall be removed without the issuance of a permit" from the Board of Selectmen, now the Select Board. It does not apply to subdivision work, street and utility work, "excavation and grading of land incidental to construction of a duly permitted structure," or "normal construction, maintenance or improvement of land in cranberry related activities or other agricultural use."

A permit requires a plan, reviews by town departments and a fee of "$0.25 per cubic yard or more," plus monthly removal records. Removing earth without a permit is fined $50 for a first offense, $100 for a second and $200 for each one after that, and each truckload counts as a separate offense. The bylaw also has the board require a bond unless it finds one is not warranted, and if earth removal starts without a permit, the town's engineer measures how much was taken, at the property owner's expense, to count the offenses. At the minimum fee, removing 1.2 million cubic yards would bring the town $300,000, by South Coast 360's calculation, if a permit and its fee applied to the work.

The court cases

In 2021, two homeowners represented by Sheehan sued the Planning Board, A.D. Makepeace and Borrego in Land Court over the special permit, The Wareham Week reported. In January 2023, a Plymouth County Superior Court judge let two residents continue a separate suit alleging the Conservation Commission's approval rested on errors of law, while dismissing three other counts, the paper reported.

What happens next

Under the state public records law, Wareham has 10 business days from receiving a request to provide the records or a written response, and a requester can petition the state Supervisor of Records if a town does not comply. Wareham Town Administrator Derek Sullivan did not answer questions South Coast 360 sent Nov. 10 about whether the Select Board issued an earth removal permit for the work or the company claimed the bylaw's exemption, or whether the Conservation Commission has any newer filing for the area. The Select Board, which issues earth removal permits, next meets Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. in Room 520 of the Multi-Service Center, 48 Marion Road, with a resident comment period on the agenda and a Zoom option, and its office can be reached at 508-291-3100, ext. 3101.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.

Notes

Every fact comes from the project's state environmental filings of 2021 and 2022, Wareham's general bylaws, a 2021 letter from the engineer who reviewed the plans for the Planning Board, the state public records law, Wareham's own web pages, emails to South Coast 360 from A.D. Makepeace and the Community Land and Water Coalition, the coalition's records request, and credited reporting by The Wareham Week for 2021 and 2023 votes and court rulings. The $300,000 figure is our own arithmetic from the bylaw's minimum fee and the 2022 filing's 1.2 million cubic yard figure. We read the records on Nov. 10 to Nov. 14, 2026, and checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Not heard: Wareham Town Administrator Derek Sullivan, asked Nov. 10, including a request to share the questions with Conservation Commission Chair Sandra Slavin. A.D. Makepeace answered on Nov. 12 but did not say whether the sand stays on company land or which permit or exemption covers the work.

Corrections

No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.

Sources (22)

  1. Expanded Environmental Notification Form, ADM TMUD Wareham PV+ES Projects, EEA No. 13940 (Beals and Thomas for Borrego Solar Systems, March 15, 2021)140 Tihonet Road site size, clearing, location, runoff, impaired waters, "sand mining" lines, MassDEP file 076-2611. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  2. ADM Tihonet Mixed Use Development Final Environmental Impact Report, EEA No. 13940 (2022)Up to 1.2 million cubic yards; June 9, 2021 certificate request on past sand excavation and the company answer. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  3. Town of Wareham General By-Laws, revised August 2025, Division IV, Article III, Earth Removal RegulationsPermit, exemptions, fee, penalties; accepted April 24, 2006. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  4. Letter from Charles L. Rowley, PE, PLS, to the Wareham Planning Board, Re: 140 Tihonet Road Solar (March 5, 2021)Shared with South Coast 360 by the Community Land and Water Coalition, Nov. 12, 2026. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  5. Email from Linda Burke, A.D. Makepeace (Nov. 12, 2026, 10:17 a.m.)Answer to South Coast 360 questions, with two herring ladder photos. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  6. Emails from Meg Sheehan, Community Land and Water Coalition (Nov. 12, 2026, 8:34 p.m. and 9:25 p.m.)Drone video and photo links, the 2021 letter, the coalition records request dated Nov. 10, 2026. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  7. Community Land and Water Coalition: "2026-11-10 Wareham Tihonet Road" (YouTube, published Nov. 10, 2026)Title, channel and publish date from the page. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  8. The Wareham Week: Borrego Solar Field approved by Planning Board (March 23, 2021)Planning Board vote, 1.3 million cubic yards, earth removal left to the Selectmen, agricultural use claim. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  9. The Wareham Week: Conservation Commission approves Borrego solar field project (April 7, 2021)Commission vote and conditions. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  10. The Wareham Week: Selectmen waive right of first refusal for Makepeace properties (2021)April 27, 2021 vote, 3-2. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  11. The Wareham Week: Residents file suit to block Planning Board approval of Makepeace, Borrego solar farm (2021)Land Court suit. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  12. The Wareham Week: Solar court rulings challenge Conservation Commission (Jan. 19, 2023)Superior Court ruling of Jan. 11, 2023. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  13. Wareham Select Board minutes, Oct. 6, 2026Meeting place: Multi-Service Center, Room 520, 48 Marion Road. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  14. Wareham Select Board agenda, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 20267 p.m., Room 520, 48 Marion Road, Zoom, resident comments. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  15. The Wareham Week: Activists call for full review of Makepeace work (June 1, 2022)Coalition objection to closing the state review. Read Nov. 10, 2026.
  16. Town of Wareham: Select BoardMeetings generally the first and third Tuesdays, 7 p.m., Multi-Service Center Room 520; office 508-291-3100, ext. 3101; Nov. 17 agenda listed. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  17. A.D. Makepeace Company: ContactLinda Burke, Vice President, Marketing and Communication. Read Nov. 10, 2026.
  18. Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66, Section 1010 business days to furnish records or respond in writing. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  19. Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 66, Section 10APetition to the Supervisor of Records. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  20. Town of Wareham: AdministrationDerek Sullivan, Town Administrator; town email addresses at wareham.gov. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  21. Town of Wareham: Conservation CommissionSandra Slavin, Chair. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
  22. Wareham Select Board agenda, Oct. 6, 2026A.D. Makepeace Company, 158 Tihonet Road (owner listing on an unrelated Chapter 61A item). Read Nov. 14, 2026.

This story on the full site