WESTBROOK – Managers at Pike Industries Inc. are wrapping up their construction blast operations at the company’s controversial Spring Street quarry, while neighboring residents and businesses are accusing Pike of ignoring an agreement to limit the company’s operations.

The reactions follow two violations the city issued to Pike last week connected with the company’s construction blasting taking place over the past two weeks at the quarry. City Administrator Jerre Bryant said this week that the violations could possibly result in fines to the company.

“We’ll hope to resolve cooperatively with the city any fines,” said Pike’s attorney, Sigmund Schutz, of the firm Preti Flaherty of Portland.

The violation notices are based on preliminary reports on the company’s blasting on May 17 and May 20, when city officials allege Pike blasted too loudly or too late in the day. Bryant said Monday that the city is still waiting for a full report on the blasting before making any decisions, but when asked if the city would fine Pike for the violations, Bryant said, “That’s certainly being considered, yes.”

The company began blasting on May 12, after receiving permits from the city. The blasting, according to city and Pike officials, is supposed to be temporary, as part of construction of an access road. The company is required to finish its blasting prior to June 9, and can only set off a total of 10 blasts.

Olson and Schutz both said the company plans to finish blasting by this Thursday, but work to complete the access road will continue for several weeks.

Jonathan Olson, Pike’s manager in Westbrook, said last week that the access road construction would divert future truck traffic away from Spring Street residences. In order to build it, he said, the company has to blast through a hill of rock, which could require varying amounts of explosives.

“We’re cutting through the center of it to a flat grade,” he said.

The quarry has drawn fire from neighboring residents and businesses ever since Pike announced plans to reactivate the decades-old operation, which would include regular blasting at the site. Its most prominent critics have been Idexx Laboratories, Artel Inc., Smiling Hill Farm, and a group of concerned residents in the nearby Birdland neighborhood. They argue that the ongoing quarry blasting will be unpleasant to listen to, as well as disruptive to business.

Last fall, the city struck a consent agreement, later upheld by a Cumberland County Superior Court judge, with Pike over quarry operations that satisfied Idexx’s concerns, but other critics remained angry enough to file two separate lawsuits appealing the agreement.

The city is charging the company with blasting too loudly on Tuesday, May 17, in violation of the agreement. Residents in the Birdland neighborhood told the American Journal that day that the noise and vibration was significant enough to startle them.

According to a copy of the city’s violation notice, a seismograph measuring the sound in the neighborhood registered 129.3 decibels, which exceeds the 129-decibel limit.

Schutz said he believed the 0.3-decibel overage is “within the margin of error for the instrument,” and noted a lack of overage readings from other seismographs on that day.

The city issued a second violation on Friday, May 20, following another blast that the city claims took place after 3 p.m.

Bryant said Pike was in communication with the city throughout the day. Bryant said Pike workers told the city blasting was being delayed due to worker safety concerns, and by the time the company was ready to blast, it was after 3 p.m. The company told the city it was going to blast anyway, rather than abandoning prepared explosives, Bryant said.

“The option of leaving loaded charges throughout the weekend presented additional safety concerns,” Bryant said.

Schutz confirmed that the company was concerned about safety, and not willfully trying to ignore the consent agreement.

“It’s very important to Pike to live within the boundaries of the consent order,” he said.

Bryant said the communications from Pike that day do not necessarily negate the violation, but, Bryant said, he saw it as proof that the company was being up-front about what it was doing.

“No one tried to hide anything,” he said.

A copy of the first warning letter to Pike indicates the city could fine the company between $100 and $2,500 per violation.

City Engineer Eric Dudley said the city is receiving regular reports from Maine Drilling and Blasting and Haley & Aldrich, two demolitions and engineering firms hired by Pike, on the effects of the blasting, including amounts of noise and dust caused by the blasting.

Artel, which manufactures sensitive fluid-measuring equipment, remains a vocal opponent to the Pike quarry. In a statement, Kirby Pilcher, company president, said he was angry with Pike’s blasting so late in the day.

“On Friday Pike knew it was after 3, but they blasted anyway. Pike1s ability under the consent agreement to ignore its legal commitments and its neighbors is strikingly evident,” he said.

Mark Robinson, an Artel spokesman, said through a statement that Artel must suspend operations for up to several hours while waiting for Pike to blast, and then must recalibrate machinery before resuming the lab’s own work.

“Artel’s reasonable estimate is that each blast costs it tens of thousands of dollars, including lost time, reduced productivity, and reorienting the timing, sequence, and nature of Artel’s operations,” he said.

Warren Knight, a member of the family that runs Smiling Hill Farm, said he was upset, but not surprised that Pike was being cited for violations. Knight said for him, this week’s events are just the beginning.

“This is just going to be a never-ending litany of complaints, violations, fines and acrimony,” he said.