A chemical manufacturer wants to build a 51-acre facility in Berwick

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 15, 2026

General Biological, a Massachusetts chemical manufacturing company, is seeking planning board approval to build a 51-acre facility in Berwick. The project would require a maximum of 1,000 pounds of RDX — also known as cyclonite, a synthetic chemical often used in plastics and military explosives — to be stored on site in a barricaded magazine. General Biological co-founder and Chief Technological Officer David Sozanski told the planning board at an Sept. 6 meeting that the purpose of the facility would be to test and build skids — the heavy machinery used to produce the chemicals. General Biological isn’t planning to add any detonation sites and will test only the skids, not the chemicals they produce.