Details on a multi-million-dollar quarry and asphalt plant will be presented to the Gorham Planning Board Monday night, and opponents of the project plan to show their muscle with up to 300 people attending the meeting.

Gorham-based Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. is seeking to proceed with Brickyard Quarry, a 60-acre stone quarry with a $3 million portable asphalt plant, located on a 125-acre, industrially zoned site off Mosher Road. The portable plant could be replaced someday by a permanent, $10 million plant. Bricks were previously manufactured at the site.

The construction company will formally present its proposal at 7 p.m., in the town council chambers in the municipal center, 75 South St. Public comment will be allowed.

An asphalt plant produces pavement by mixing gravel and crushed stone with black, liquid petroleum and heating the mixture to 300 degrees.

Danny Shaw, co-owner of the consruction company, doesn’t believe the plant would be harmful to the environment or people’s health.

“We have no intention of hurting anybody in the area,” Shaw said. “It’ll be a clean and neat operation.”

But a residents’ group, Concerned Citizens of Gorham, fears the plant. A member of the group, Aleece Herlihy of Belmont Terrace, recognized the need for the town to attract new business, but said she wants development that is safe for families.

“This is making something that creates emissions and poses a health threat,” Herlihy said Tuesday.

Dave Homa, an unsuccessful town council candidate in November, has been a leading opponent of the asphalt plant. But he said he’s just one member of the group.

Homa said the group of about 20 core members planned a telephone campaign to urge people to attend, and he thought at least 100 would show up.

“We could have as many as 300,” Homa said about the meeting attendance. “We’re prepared for public comment.”

The group’s concerns include the impact on air quality and home values in the neighborhood, and nuisance factors such as dust, noise and vibration. Homa said while the Department of Environmental Protection monitors stack emissions, there are “fugitive” emissions from piles of material that go unmonitored.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty how it will affect the town,” Homa said.

Rick Perkins, head of the compliance unit for air emissions for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, could not be reached this week for comment.

But research done by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources and reported on its Web site said that while most of an asphalt plant’s emissions are from the main stack, there are fumes from storage and loading areas. It also said many emissions from an asphalt plant are the same compounds found in car exhaust, fireplaces and wood stoves. Asphalt fumes contain several chemicals that might cause cancer, the agency said.

“Asphalt workers have the greatest long-term exposure to these fumes, yet studies of cancer in asphalt workers are not conclusive,” the agency said.

In addition, the North Carolina report said, residents “should not be exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution if they live near plants that meet the state’s air toxics rules.”

Shaw said people have worked in paving their “whole lives” without being sick. “It’s not like asbestos,” Shaw said.

Shaw said fears of Gorham residents are unsubstantiated by science. He said the project would be monitored by several agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, as well as the town of Gorham.

The plant would be required to meet federal and state water discharge and air emissions standards. “It’s going to be very regulated,” Shaw said.

Shaw said the company is asking for a permitted use on the site it bought from LaChance Brick Co. “We’re not asking for a zone change or a special exemption,” Shaw said. “We have to meet the ordinances, and we intend to.”

Opponents argue the asphalt plant would be too close to neighborhoods. But Shaw, who said the project would be “well screened” as a shield for neighbors, said asphalt plants in southern Maine have been located in the middle of cities without causing problems.

But Herlihy said the site abuts a growing residential area. She thought the project was “awful close” to the Gateway Commons housing development and the Narragansett Elementary School, farther up Main Street from the housing development.

Shaw disagreed. He said the distance from the edge of the quarry to the edge of the jointly owned green space at Gateway Commons was about 1,000 feet through woods. “I’d be surprised if they even knew we’re there,” Shaw said.

Homa also worried about projections of 120 trucks a day serving the plant.

“Trucks could run at night for night paving,” Homa said. “Every day there will be impacts rolling out of this facility.”

Shaw has said that a plant would add truck traffic to Mosher Road, but would reduce traffic overall because trucks are running through Gorham now to haul material from pits and quarries to make asphalt in other municipalities. The finished product is then trucked back into Gorham for paving projects.

Homa said the opposition was not against Shaw as an individual. “It’s nothing personal. It’s not the right place in town” for an asphalt plant, Homa said.

If all goes well during the permitting process, Shaw said, the plant could be operating in the spring.

But Homa thinks otherwise.

“This process is going to be lengthy,” Homa said.

The proposal will also need a permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The Gorham Planning Board will hear the Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. proposal for Brickyard Quarry, Monday at 7 p.m., in the town council chambers in the municipal center, 75 South St. (the former Shaw School). The public will be allowed to comment.