ADAMS, Mass. — The neighbors north of Specialty Minerals are hoping for some relief from the sticky, gritty coating that's been covering their cars, patios and outdoor furniture. 

 

Nearly two dozen residents on Monday aired their grievances to company officials during an open meeting at its Howland Avenue offices. 

 

"I have lived there since 1973," said one woman. "The last four or five years have been horrendous."

 

Specialty Minerals produces about 80,000 tons of lime a year for construction and industrial uses from its 1,400-acre quarry. Another 250,000 tons a year of ground calcium carbonate is sold for masonry, building projects, agricultural and environmental uses. Another product, precipitated calcium carbonate, is used in finishes such as automobile paint. 

 

Officials said a failure of a duct caused an excessive amount of dust to escape from Kiln 4 on July 27. The crack was difficult to track down because of the 12-inch thick insulation cover. Attempts were made to mitigate the issue and then the kiln was shut down until the duct could be replaced.  

 

The dust covered the Zylonite Zone, the neighborhood immediately to the north of the plant and named for the old American Zylonite Co. that operated there. 

 

Lisa and Kyle Lawson live within sight the expanding quarry and said they woke Sunday morning last week find their vehicles again covered with a white substance they described as Elmer's glue mixed with powder. Kyle Lawson said he'd just gotten his car cleaned up. 

 

"I spent three hours Saturday," he said last week. "Then I wake up in the morning, the freaking thing is covered where I can't even see out the windshield."

 

The couple said they'd gotten used to the lime dust over the years but more recently the particulates had become harder and harder to wash off. 

 

"It looks like the windows are pitted and they're not," Lisa Lawson said. She's gone through several windshield wipers at $100 each because they've eroded between the grit and the strong cleaner she's had to use.

 

The number of complaints following last week's emission led the company to call the neighborhood meeting to explain what happened and hear their concerns.

 

"Please be assured that this dust is not harmful to either your health or the environment, and we are prioritizing implementing corrective measures," Plant Manager Firat Kocak wrote in a letter to residents inviting them to the meeting. "Being a considerate neighbor has always been our top priority and all community concerns are accordingly treated seriously."

 

Residents say the company has been responsive in providing carwash vouchers, scheduling detailings of vehicles and alerting them to blasts in the quarry as it expands northward.   

 

Daniel Sattler, quarry manager, said on Monday how he'd been in the neighborhood, and in people's homes, when the blasting occurred to experience himself what if feels like. Seismographs are monitored by a third party to ensure the readings stay within the state law parameters. 

 

But residents say the blasts are starting to feel like earthquakes — rolling through their homes and cracking concrete floors and paths — and the amount and composition of the particulates have changed. And it's not coming off easy. 

 

Several neighbors told Kocak and Kyle Ledbetter, the plant's environmental, health and safety director, that their vehicles still have a glaze or film, despite the detailing the company has paid for. One described it as a "texture," another that it didn't make sense to scrub it on Wednesday if was going to be covered again on Thursday. A couple said they had to re-stain their decks every year. 

 

One of the Lawsons' neighbors, Colleen Munson, said last week a company representative had set up a carwash.

 

"So I called him, I said it did not come off," she said. "And he goes, 'I know everybody's saying that.' ...

 

 

Several people at the meeting said the best solution so far is a calcium, lime and rust (CLR) remover that can be quite expensive (company officials said they could look into that) or a vinegar solution that could damage a vehicle's top coat. 

 

Ledbetter said plant has 117 dust collectors and that the company spent $2 million retrofitting the system so it's more proactive in alerting when it needs to be addressed. That and covering a still open landfill are expected to make a difference. 

 

"At the time of the incident, our team's top priority was to be responsive and transparent to our neighbors who were impacted," said Drew O'Brien, a spokesperson for the company. "The meeting at our facility [Monday] night was intended to facilitate that responsiveness and transparency. 

 

He said the company wanted to emphasize that the dust and material "are not harmful to the health of our neighbors, the broader public or the environment."

 

Residents aren't completely convinced it's safe and noted that this wasn't a one-time event but an ongoing problem for several years. The Lawsons had even written to the company's CEO back in 2022 about chemical odors, blasting that knocked items of shelves, excessive dust that set off smoke detectors and the "sticky" white film on their vehicles.

 

Kocak and Ledbetter said they were making their concerns a priority. They encouraged neighbors to contact them with any problems — and to document what they could — and said the company would help "within reason." 

 

"We take our role as a good neighbor and a steward of Adams and its wonderful natural resources very seriously and appreciate the participation and feedback from everyone who attended the meeting [Monday] night," said O'Brien.  

 

The group was handed more carwash vouchers as they departed. 

 

"I'm not asking for the world," Lisa Lawson said last week. "I just want live in peace with them." 

 

On Monday, she felt hopeful. "They seem to be committed," she said.