A leading New England environmental group says Pike Industries of Westbrook will be violating state regulations should it go ahead with plans to expand its blasting operations in the Five Star Industrial Park. Toxics Actions Center has joined up with a group of Westbrook residents to voice their concern as part of an ongoing struggle between Pike and certain local businesses and residents who oppose the gravel company's excavation practices. They say they're concerned about the noise, vibration and dust clouds that accompany the blasting. But now they're airing a new grievance.

"I'm here today with residents of Westbrook who are concerned that there is a TCE spill on site where there's going to be an industrial blasting facility. They're concerned that the TCE is going to be disrupted," said Tayrn Hallweaver, a community organizer with Toxics Actions Center, which is worried about the potential danger from Trichloro-ethylene or TCE -- a dangerous carcinogen, which leaked into the ground nearby a few years ago.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, she says, has done a good job in capping and monitoring that particular spill, which, for now, remains safe. "The DEP has done an excellent job in containing the spill, in preventing any migration of the contamination, and the DEP has ordered that no excavation take place, no disruption take place, industrial blasting, rock blasting clearly qualifies as a concern as a far as disturbances go."

Tom Porter: "So what you're saying is that Pike are contravening DEP regulations."

Tayrn Hallweaver: "Without obtaining written permission from the Department, which I don't believe they have, then, yes, they will be."

Toxics Action Center was formed in 1987 in response to a tragedy in Woburn, Massachusetts, where public drinking water was contaminated by TCE - something which Hallweaver says led to the deaths of 14 children from leukemia.

This latest announcement was made at a press conference outside the home of local residents Mike and Linda Daley, who live on Spring Street by Stroudwater River, where they say the toxin could be released if Pike were to start blasting at the Five-Star Industrial park, which is also on Spring Street.

"The Stroudwater River needs to stay undisturbed," Daley said. As long as there is no blasting, Daley said, everything will be fine. "We are here today to let everybody know that if things change, we may not be so fine, and everybody downriver may not be so fine either.

"This is nothing more than a last-minute, desperate attempt to close down one of Westbrook's largest taxpayers by resorting to scare tactics and claims that have absolutely no basis," says Pike Industries spokesman Dennis Bailey.

Bailey says these latest charges have no basis in fact. "Pike has met with DEP, and they've discussed this issue and they've had no concern and no complaints. Pike is regulated by state and federal environmental laws, they get reviewed and permitted for all their activities. They're fully aware of what Pike has in mind."

For its part, the Department of Environmental Protection confirmed a TCE spill on an adjacent property --- known as the Unitrode site, named after the electronics firm that operated there from 1977 to 1990.

DEP spokeswoman Donna Gormley says that the department had preliminary discussions with Pike in February 2008 about the impact that quarrying would have on TCE containment on the Unitrode site. She says at this point, TCE has not spread to Stroudwater River.

"I know that DEP obviously has similar concerns to the folks who live in and around that area," Gormley says. "We did get notification a while back that Pike was proposing expansion of their gravel quarry pit."

Gormley says that Pike will have to seek a permit from the DEP to expand quarrying operations at Spring Street, and that a formal analysis would be undertaken at that point.

The latest accusation comes at a time when Pike and its critics are supposedly in a detente. Last month, the Westbrook City Council asked both sides to hammer out a compromise.

For Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton the news of a potential toxic threat came as a surprise. "This the first I've heard of this issue about a toxin, TCE. I think it's a little unfortunate that information hasn't come forward to date."

Hilton says the issue will be taken up by the commmitte charged with fact -finding. "We've had an open dialogue, more of a conversation back and forth, with all interested parties, so I just find it interesting that it didn't come by way of the committee, or this issue hasn't been raised before, at least not what I'm aware of."

In May, Westbrook city councilors are to reconsider a proposal to re-zone the industrial park from heavy to light manufacturing -- something that would effectively bar Pike from quarrying at the area.