On October 22, 2019 Green Acton Director Kim Kastens visited the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, DC with a delegation from the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. At this meeting, Green Acton’s request was that the Record of Decision (ROD) for the WR Grace Superfund site be reopened and 1,4-dioxane be added to the remediation plan. On November 13, 2019 Kastens and Matt Mostoller, the Environmental Manager for the Acton Water District, followed up with officials at the EPA Region 1 Office in Boston (Region 1 covers New England).
EPA was represented at the follow-up meeting by Bryan Olson, the Director of the Region 1 Superfund and Emergency Management Division; Lynne Jennings, the Section Chief for the Massachusetts Superfund Section; and Christopher Smith, the Remedial Project Manager for the WR Grace Site. Ms. Jennings had been the Project Manager for the WR Grace site earlier in her career, so there was deep historical knowledge at the table. This two-hour meeting dug much deeper into the data and the range of possible actions than had been possible at the Washington meeting.
A few weeks after the November meeting, we received an encouraging letter signed by the Regional Administrator, Dennis Deziel [EPA Response WR Grace SF Site Dec 2019]. The key paragraph says:
“The group agreed on several next steps to be taken to address the concerns raised by you and Mr. Mostoller. EPA will work with W.R. Grace to compile the historic 1,4-dioxane groundwater data for the Site and will share these results with you on figures which show the nature and extent and any trends in the data. EPA expects to receive and share these figures in January 2020. EPA will use this information to re-evaluate how thoroughly the presence of the compound has been characterized, especially in the areas you noted during the meeting. EPA will then work with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Acton Water District, W. R. Grace and community representatives to determine whether a more extensive sampling effort is needed.”
Although this is only a small step forward, it is the necessary first step before any other action can be contemplated.