CITIZENS AGAINST RESIDENTIAL MINING ACTIVITY (“CARMA”)
CARMA.Maine@gmail.com
February 21, 2023
Shastri Ramnath
President, CEO & Director
Exiro Minerals Corp.
Shastri.Ramnath@exirominerals.com
Dear Ms. Ramnath:
We have been appointed by the Crawford Lake Association as an advocacy group to represent the generations of families that have cherished the beauty and serenity of Warren and Union’s Crawford Pond for more than 100 years. Crawford Pond is not a “financial asset” for us. It is an invaluable community bound in the love of nature, wild animals, family and memories. We draw our drinking and bathing water from the pond, we swim, we boat, we hike, we admire the loons and eagles and sometimes we just sit on a dock in awe of the natural beauty and peace. Please view through this lens what you and your company and the industry you support are doing to us.
The strength and resolve of our community and the peaceful environment we are committed to protecting should be evident to you by now. Your mere contemplation of metal mining exploration has already generated a universal outpouring of opposition across socio- economic classes, political parties, states of origin, and ages. If this is not yet clear, let us say it here:
Immediately stop your attempt to prospect around Crawford Pond and the surrounding Georges River Valley.
Your prospecting — even leaving aside mining — would have an immediate environmental and human impact: noise pollution, heavy equipment drilling, airborne dust, land erosion and low- flying aircraft with magnetometers. But the door you open to mining would destroy everything we love about this place. Because of the interconnectivity of the Georges River Watershed, mining would put at risk the entire area, including Seven Tree Pond, Lermond Pond, Alford Lake, White Oak Pond, North Pond, alewive fisheries and the entire stretch of the St. George River as it drains into the ocean in Thomaston. This page is too short to even begin to describe the devastating toll metal mining would take on the local environment and its residents.
There is no place for metal mining here, we have no tolerance for the gateway to mining that your prospecting creates. We are organized, united and will fight like hell to keep you, your helicopters and airplanes and your disruptive equipment away from Crawford. We cannot be bought.
Citizens Against Residential Mining Activity (“CARMA”) CARMA.Maine@gmail.com
Copies to:
Milton Hilt, President, Crawford Lake Association
miltonhilt@aol.com
Sherry Howard, Warren Town Manager
manager@warrenmaine.org
Jay Feyler, Union Town Manager
townmanager@union.maine.gov
Kara George, Thomaston Town Manager
kgeorge@thomastonmaine.gov
Samantha Mank, Hope Town Manager
admin@hopemaine.org
Melanie Loyzim, Commissioner, Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection
melanie.loyzim@maine.gov
Janet Mills, Governor
governor@maine.gov
Nature Conservancy Maine
naturemaine@tnc.org
William Pluecker, Maine House of Representatives
william.pluecker@legislature.maine.gov
Pinny Beebe-Center, Maine Senate
mesenate12@gmail.com
Annette Naegel, Director of Conservation, Georges River Land Trust
annette@grlt.org
James A. Robbins, President, Robbins Lumber, Inc.
jarobbins@rlco.com
Christine Simmonds, Managing Editor, Courier-Gazette
csimmonds@villagesoup.com
Stephen Betts, Reporter, Courier-Gazette
sbetts@villagesoup.com