WESTBROOK – Critics of a controversial Spring Street quarry are once again taking Pike Industries Inc. to court, this time to send a message that not only are the rights of the quarry’s neighbors being ignored, but also that city officials are powerless to do anything about it.

“It tells them that we’re not giving up our rights at this moment,” said Warren Knight, a member of the family that owns Smiling Hill Farm, a vocal critics of the Pike quarry.

At issue, Knight said, is the fact that Pike secured a permit to do construction blasting earlier this year, and there was no mechanism for any objections to be heard.

The quarry has been making headlines for the past several years, ever since Pike executives announced they would be reactivating the quarry, which had been mostly dormant for decades.

The move angered Knight, residents of the nearby Birdland Neighborhood, Spring Street residents, and even some corporate neighbors, including veterinary supply manufacturer Idexx Laboratories Inc. and Artel, manufacturer of sensitive fluid-measuring equipment.

The dispute led to Pike’s interests being pitted against those of Idexx, which was planning to build a new $50 million corporate headquarters near the quarry. The city eventually forged a consent agreement, which was signed off by a Maine Superior Court judge last fall.

Idexx stopped actively protesting the quarry after that, but other critics, including Knight, moved to appeal the court’s decision to the Maine Supreme Court. That appeal has not yet been resolved.

This spring, Pike officials, in accordance with the consent agreement, filed for and received permits from City Engineer Eric Dudley and Code Enforcement Officer Rick Gouzie to build an access road running parallel to Spring Street. The company also received permission to conduct construction blasts.

Knight and the Birdland neighbors attempted to appeal the granting of the permits to the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals. While they were not denied, the board, in a meeting in July, resolved that it didn’t have jurisdiction to counter the permits. Even if it did, according to a written copy of its decision, the board does not have the authority to challenge the consent agreement.

“To the extent that the board has any jurisdiction over the appeal of the granting or approval of a blasting permit or over actions and decisions by the city engineer, any such jurisdiction has been superseded by the binding consent order,” the board wrote.

Knight acknowledged that by the time the case made it to the board, Pike had finished blasting, making a denial of permit a moot issue, but there was still a point to be proven: that the board was powerless in the face of the consent agreement.

“In this instance, the ZBA had to admit ‘We have no authority here,’” he said.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the whole point of the consent agreement discussion was to come to a compromise among competing interests. The process of resolving the case in court in the first place, Bryant said, represents a vehicle for concerns to be heard. The agreement, he said, is not an attempt to circumvent the authority of local officials.

“Basically, we disagree with that conclusion,” he said.

Knight said he and the Birdland alliance have filed the appeal in Cumberland County Superior Court. Knight acknowledged that there is little financial gain at the heart of this new legal action, but by not filing, “You’re sort of saying, ‘I don’t challenge this,’ and it can go forward.”

Knight said he expects the appeal to be addressed after the original lawsuit, filed to overturn the consent agreement, has been resolved.

“The Maine Supreme Court ruling may make this a moot point,” he said.