2021-11-09 Green Acton Meeting

Attending: Sue Jick, Rob Gogan, Chris Edwards, Debra Simes, Jim Snyder-Grant, Danny Factor, Jane Moosbruker, Kim Kastens, TF, Norm Strahle

AGENDA

Welcome + housekeeping tasks
Chris Edwards note-taker, Sue Jick facilitator, Debra Simes timekeeper

Check-in
Checkin topic: reactions to COP26

Committee reviews on progress on FY2021 goals: (Energy, Water, Land Use, Materials: Plastics)

Water: Kim discussed Nagog Pond lowering of water level, which led to Mass DET order to Concord. Now know how to understand and get things done. Future: proactive, eg. climate action plan. Revision of hazard mitigation plan, inc. drought and flooding. Also, Acton Water Plan deficiencies are now known.

Land Use: Danny reports that the 2021 housing plan is not bold enough to counter the crises we face. See report. For 2022 time for Land Use Committee to bring bold action: 1. ecologically just and affordable housing (not nec. with building); 2. zoning reforms; loss on proposal to PCRC, need for reform; 3. protect trees on private land: limit land clearance; 4. protect all trees on town-owned land 5. ensure resident access to greenspace via proposal to increase greenspace; 6. better public transportation.

Materials: (summarized by Susan Jick; see report)

• Report from GA Climate Action Plan ad hoc group: Response to CAP strategies:
Kim: (recap of history), 11 goals, 53 strategies. Then Kim, Tara, Jim, Danny met. See results in report.

• Draft response to draft CAP strategies

Debra: All comments must be submitted by Nov 11. Not time for responding to individual emails. Danny: Green Acton could approve final report tonight and small group could convene to address comments. 

Priorities: rehab should be first approach. Better to prioritize carbon footprint. Kim: BE3 says new few, small as possible.

Checked for consensus about CAP comment document. One concern, that person was willing to stand aside after some discussion.

• Event/action announcements

Thurs, Nov 18 Climate Action Plan Event, 12–1:30pm.

Danny: Apartment dwellers group. Contact Danny for details

Kim: Part time job Acton water environmental analyst. Posted on Acton Water District

• TRANSITION (checkout for those leaving)

[NEXT: ADMINISTRATIVE/INTERNAL AFFAIRS SECTION OF MEETING]

• FY 2022 draft budget review / approval

Debra reviewed the proposed budget: It’s higher for a few reasons: 

  1. We have tracked the administrative expenses more closely and made the budget more realistic; some fixed expenses have increased.
  2. Some money has been set aside in case of doing a Cleanup week.
  3. Some money has been set aside to help with the Town Meeting campaign(s) of the Plastics subcommittee. 
  4. Directors have been given a larger contingency in case new campaigns come up and need to be funded.

Green Acton Budget FY2022

COMMITTEE BUDGET ITEMS
CommitteeFunding RequestedFunding ProposedBudget Needs IdentifiedAccount Code
ADMIN$   25$   25$  0
$  25: contingency 
BUDGET$     0$     0
COMMUNICATIONS$ 175$ 175$ 150 Adobe CS rentalOutside computer svcs: 8560
$   25 contingency
ENERGY$ 150$ 150$ 125: materials production for APC/Green Printing and copying: 7170
$  25: contingency 
FUNDRAISING$  75$ 100$ 35Printing and copying: 8170
$ 40Supplies: 8110
$  25 contingency
LAND USE$   75$ 100$  75: materials productionPrinting and copying: 7170
$  25: contingency
MATERIALS
(incl. Plastics)		Cleanup Week: $225
PC: $250		$ 525$ 225: Acton Cleanup Week materials Printing and copying: 7170
$ 250: polystyrene + campaignPrinting and copying: 7170
$  50: contingency 
VOLUNTEER$     0$   15$  0
$  15: contingency 
WATER$ 200$ 200$ 100: document requestsDocument Requests: 7300
$  75: honoraria Educational Event Costs: 7200
$  25: contingency 
BOARD$ 500$ 500$ 500: Board contingency(e.g.: unanticipated campaign, vendor, etc. expenses)  
TOTAL$ 1,675$ 1,790
ANNUAL OPERATIONS BUDGET LINE ITEMS
Category   AmountAccount Code
Outside computer services$ 4598560
Hosting$ 120
Domain registration$   16
WordPress services$   98
JetPack$   39
RocketGenius$   59
QuickBooks Online$   75
Zoom account (Pro)$ 150
Printing and copying8170
Postage and shipping$ 2008140
Annual PO box fee$ 200
Supplies8110
Organizational expenses$   558670
Form PC$   35
SoS Annual Report          $   20.00
Other expenses (contingency)$   868590
TOTAL$ 800

TOTAL FY2022 BUDGET: $1,790 (Committees) + $800 (Operations) = $2,590

AccApproved by consensus 2021-11-09

• FY 2022 draft fundraising plan review / approval

Plan is the same as last year: an annual appeal. The larger budget is not a huge concern: the new budget matches pretty closely what was raised last year, and a lot of what we raised last year was not spent because of pandemic (example: handouts were not a good strategy this last year or two).

Accepted by consensus

• checkout

Checked out about the CAP report agreement. This was hard work for the committee which started out with a wide variety of opinions and some disagreements.

Noted that biodiversity was definitely under-discussed in the final report and there was a lot of feedback we gathered that would feed future discussions. 

It was noted that a clear task and a definite deadline are good drivers of productivity.

Jim and Sue will gather tomorrow to figure out exactly what to copy & paste into a document for Andrea.

Committee reviews on progress: (see full reports below)

Report from GA Climate Action Plan ad hoc group

2021-11-05
Green Acton “Town Climate Action Plan Working Group” Report 

(a version with comments and additional dialog is here in this document:2021-11-05 Climate Action Plan working group report)

The Green Acton “Town Climate Action Plan Working Group” was created at the October, 2021 Green Acton meeting to suggest comments and edits to Acton’s draft Climate Action Plan for the consideration of Green Acton. There are four people in the group: Danny Factor, Kim Kastens, Jim Snyder-Grant, and TF (who prefers to be known by initials in Google Docs). Our starting point was the goals and strategies presented here by the town:

Goals: https://www.acton-ma.gov/Blog.aspx?IID=220#item

Strategies: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GFUh5CgSxjp_LnsZo8Tux8vMPKJIZYap/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117094481468151699225&rtpof=true&sd=true

We met for about 6 hours over 3 meetings, and could have kept meeting, but we were working to the deadline of the Nov. 9 Green Acton meeting, and the Nov. 11 date recently published by the Sustainability DIrector as a deadline for feedback on the goals and strategies. We do have some general conclusions and specific language to share with you. It’s likely that each of the four of us might emphasize or underline certain points more deeply, or downplay others, but overall we think we have a fine starting point for Green Acton to discuss. 

Overall conclusions on the various issues we discussed:

  1. The goals and strategies almost entirely miss out on protecting residents from the coming impacts of climate change (a.k.a “resilience”). We propose to fix this by adding some paragraphs at the top of the plan tying this work more closely together with Acton’s existing, piecemeal resilience plans, and adding an explicit goal about resilience. See ‘Proposed language about a preface,’ below. 
  2. The existing goals and strategies don’t adequately take into account the climate costs of new buildings (for example, the climate costs of the reduction of greenspace and the direct and indirect emissions from using new materials). There were a lot of goals and strategies that could be incorporated to fix this. Some of us wanted to take a more minimal and focused approach, others wanted to fix more of the strategies and goals. We will be showing you the small set that were agreed to by all of us, and provide a link to all of the strategies that had edits proposed.
  3. As part of working through the process in Step 2, we agreed that Green Acton would be well served by having a conversation for a significant portion of a GA 2022 monthly meeting to address and discuss the environmental costs of new building, and to see if there are any policy approaches that we can agree on, such as a building moratorium on unnecessary buildings, which would include defining what the word “unnecessary” means. 
  4. Some of us had serious concerns with the way the Town CAP Group has been operating, but we did not have time yet to agree on what were the most important process issues, and how to write them up, and what to focus on. A starting point is in our working document, linked at the bottom of this report. 
  5. We noted some gaps with the way biodiversity protection was described, in particular the protection of trees, but we did not have time to agree on how to address these gaps other than adding a reference to protections against land clearing. This may need to wait until we have a Green Acton committee focused on biodiversity, or until there are specific policy proposals from the GA Land Use Committee that we can discuss. A starting point is in our working document, linked at the bottom of this report, including comments from Steve Long, Bettina Abe, Karen Watkins, Matthew Liebman, and Rob Gogan.

Goals proposed to be changed or added:

Change: BE3) “Commercial and industrial buildings and homes in Acton are built and retrofitted to be energy efficient, net zero carbon, healthy, affordable, and resilient.” to “A bold emergency plan is initiated to quickly retrofit commercial and industrial buildings and homes in Acton to be energy efficient, net zero carbon, healthy, affordable, and resilient. New buildings should be few in number compared to the current practice, as small as possible, and built with the lowest possible greenhouse gas impact over the lifespan of the building. (The purpose for this proposed change is to emphasize the speed at which we need to retrofit existing buildings, and emphasize reducing the climate impact of any new buildings.)

Change BE4) “Acton actively influences policies at the state and federal level to support affordable building decarbonization.” to “Acton actively influences policies at the state and federal level to support rapid and affordable decarbonization.” (The purpose of this proposed change is to emphasize that Acton’s message to the state and federal government will emphasize decarbonization, focusing on both housing affordability and the need to decarbonize rapidly.)

Change NB2) “Acton increases its waste diversion rate through town-wide programs to streamline, prevent, reduce, reuse, compost, and recycle waste.” to “Acton increases its waste diversion rate through town-wide programs, bylaws, and policies to streamline, prevent, reduce, reuse, compost, and recycle waste.” (The purpose of this proposed change is to add “bylaws and policies” to the list of things that may need to be addressed in order for the town to increase its waste diversion in the most climate-friendly manner. )

Also, we suggest a new goal under N-B solutions: “NB4. Acton’s government and residents prepare for climate disruptions, including drought, flooding, more frequent and/or severe storms, extreme heat, and biodiversity loss.” (The purpose of this proposed goal is to add a hook for resilience at the goal level) 

Strategies proposed to be edited or added

Strategy #2:
The original language is “Create new affordable housing and mixed-use development within ½ mile of public transit and near existing business centers and village districts. Ensure sustainable land use practices, access to greenspaces, and improved infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians as a part of these developments. Prioritize rehabilitation or reuse of existing buildings where feasible.”

We propose splitting this into three separate strategies:

  • Extend access to usable public transportation to within ½ mile or less of all Acton homes.
  • Design and build a usable bicycle network that reaches all commercial areas and most of Acton’s homes, and connects to a broader regional bike network. 
  • Enact zoning, planning, and bylaw changes to reduce sprawl and favor situations where any new housing units are near existing infrastructure. To save materials, energy, and greenspace, prioritize rehabilitation or reuse of existing buildings over new construction.

(We propose this split into three separate strategies because these public transit strategies, bicycle network strategies, and anti-sprawl/building rehab strategies are important enough for them to be spelled out and stand separately. Specifically, the public transit strategy helps make it clear that any place in town could be within ½ mile of public transit, and the final strategy aims to reduce Acton’s carbon footprint by reducing sprawl and prioritizing rehabilitation and reuse of existing buildings.) 

Strategy # 5:
Change: “Adopt zoning changes to allow for broader and more multifamily housing choices and flexible approaches to achieve housing affordability, including smaller-scale units, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and rehabilitation units.” to
“Adopt zoning changes to limit land clearing significantly and to require climate-sensitive housing choices, while renewing a strong commitment to affordability and accessibility. Such changes should include allowing tiny-house parks, and reuse of existing buildings for accessory dwelling units, multifamily housing, apartments over commercial businesses, and rooming houses.”

(Our proposed change adds land clearing limits, and also adds the wording “climate-sensitive housing choices” to clarify that this is a climate-related strategy. This proposed revision also contains a list of examples of climate-sensitive housing choices, many of which can be done without adding new buildings.)
_______________

ADD Strategy (51?) “Mandate recycling and composting for all apartment complexes, and establish the right to compost on a person’s own property and at condo/apartment complexes, including rentals.” (This adds a specific strategy to support the goal of increased recycling and composting)

ADD Strategy (52?) “Reduce the net amount of impervious surfaces, to allow more greenhouse gas absorption and water recharge.” (This proposed strategy adds language for both resilience and mitigation, which is missing in the existing draft.)

Proposed language about a preface 

A comprehensive “Climate Action Plan” for the Town of Acton needs to include a balance among: (1) actions that move Acton towards doing its fair share to reduce greenhouse gases so as to minimize harm to the global climate, and (2) actions that protect Acton from anticipated harms due to a changing climate and prepare Acton to recover from such harms when they do occur. Action set (1) could be abbreviated as “GHG reduction” and (2) as “Resilience.” Changes to the global climate are now inevitable due to greenhouse gases that are already in the atmosphere, and harms will come to Acton sooner or later. There is no viable plan that can lean so heavily into GHG reduction that Action set 2 becomes unnecessary.

The document that Acton Town staff and residents have prepared in the fall of 2021 is focused on GHG reduction. This was a conscious decision, since some aspects of climate resilience were already included in other planning documents, while GHG reduction was a perceived major gap. 

Now that our GHG reduction strategies have been articulated and prioritized, Green Acton advocates that Acton’s Climate Resilience Strategies be compiled from their scattered homes in multiple other planning documents. Then the resulting collection should be scrutinized for gaps and weaknesses, and a plan formulated to address them. Some sources include:

  • Hazard Mitigation Plan (2018): includes action items concerning droughts and flooding, and a description of risks from extreme heat (although no action items).
  • Open Space Plan (2014–2021): includes discussion of open space for water quality protection, but could pay more attention to open space for protection from “100 year” flood and for aquifer recharge.
  • Acton 2020 Comprehensive Community Plan: identifies “future contingencies,” including more-frequent and more-violent storms and significant climatic changes.
  • Municipal Vulnerability Plan: top hazards identified as flooding, severe storms, drought, and extreme heat.
  • Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan: This is a new planning effort, underway now, which could include wildfires and floods. 
  • Acton Water District Master Plan Update (2018): Does not discuss drought; next revision should.

Going forward, Green Acton advocates that greenhouse gas reduction action items and the Climate Resilience action items be yoked together under a common governance structure and common system of accountability and transparency, and housed in the Sustainability Office.

Because any Climate Action Plan must be accountable to the residents of Acton and regularly updated to reflect public sentiment, we believe that the CAP should state that the Sustainability Director shall: 

1. Annually report in person and in writing to the Select Board as to whether each goal of the Climate Action Plan has been met.

2. Produce a revised town CAP in 2023, after giving the public a comment window to suggest revisions to the plan. 

Thank you for all of your work, and for your consideration of our comments.

Green Acton Board of Directors
__________________________________


Additional topic areas discussed:

You can see all of our drafts, and dialog about them, in our working document: Bullet points for discussing CAP. This document includes these sections:

Committee updates and goals reports:

____________

Report on 2021 ENERGY COMMITTEE GOALS:

A.  Acton Power Choice: increase subscription numbers to APC GREEN

We need to see the latest report from Peregrine to assess our impact.

  1. The Energy Committee will continue to lead on any APC campaign; goals include: developing promotional tools and strategies to promote GREEN (slide presentation, website content, etc.)

    Yes, we did. Created and deployed new promo tools (overstreet banner, yard signs, new flyers, ActonTV PSA); created and publicized slide presentation; wrote the Energize Acton APC text for the new website; tabled at Acton-Boxborough Farmers Market twice: once with GA energy committee and once with the Acton Climate Coalition; creation of a tabling sign that outlined five major energy initiatives in Acton, including APC; also tabled at Climate Action Plan public workshop at NARA, and at NARA Indivisible Acton event. including the. 
  1. Collaborate with the Sustainability Director, Acton Climate Coalition working groups, Peregrine Energy, Mothers Out Front, the Green Advisory Board and others to execute opt-up campaigns with various segments in town: residents, businesses, houses of worship, e.g.

    Yes, we did. Worked with Peregrine and designer to develop lawn signs and an overstreet banner (which Peregrine funded). Created small APC take-away for Mothers Out Front. Provided “How to Read Your Eversource Bill” and APC flyer for United Way event and Acton Family Network new resident basket. Collaborated with Sustainability Director on development and airing of APC slide presentation, on new APC materials, on tabling event. Promoted APC GREEN on GA social media accounts.

B.  Advocate for Town putting all eligible accounts into APC GREEN

  1. Confirm which Town accounts are eligible, and analyze the difference in cost between these accounts calculate the addition emissions savings from such a transition
  2. Consult with the Sustainability Director and the Green Advisory Board, and generate a persuasive document to send to the Town Manager, advocating for the transition of those accounts

Yes, but . . . most of this analysis work was done in 2019. Moving into 2022 we need to monitor the implementation. The Town has proposed funding for the transition of most municipal accounts to APC GREEN. 

C.  Discuss, in late 2021, the design of the next round of the APC program (for the next conract term, commencing September 2022); advocate with Town

  1. There are several “features” that might be discussed for the next phase of the APC program, including:

    • making the 100% GREEN option the “default”/auto-enroll level of participation, aka, an “opt out” rather than “opt in” for 100%

    • adding substantially more renewable content to the Standard option

    • a potential “adder” to APC rates (tiny fraction of a cent) to help fund Town sustainability needs/initiatives

  1.  Energy Committee will discuss, arrive at its positions on these, vet with board, and then
    advocate during the design phase with Town

    Currently in process.

D.  Participate in the development of the Town’s coming Climate Action Plan 

  1. This will be a collaborative effort among the Green Advisory Board and Sustainability Director, in consultation with the Acton Climate Coalition, Green Acton, and Mothers Out Front, as well as members of the public. A specific role for Energy is TBD.

We individually participated in the CAP (Climate Action Plan) process, and helped ensure that one strategy in the CAP is to make the APC GREEN default to be 100% renewable. 

E.  Recruit additional Energy Committee members

  1. Identify, and reach out to, all Green Acton members who have joined the organization in the past year+ and expressed interest in energy issues: invite to the April meeting; identify particular interests and skills; invite participation with specific initiatives.

Nope, we did not. That said, we have added folks who joined as GA members and indicated interest in the Energy Committee to the Energy Announcements list; also added an Energy “blurb” to the welcome email to new members. Did specific outreach to any new GA members inviting them to join the committee (to date, this has generated no new members). One new GA member is an ABRHS student; she and two others joined the committee for our September meeting because of their interest in shifting the APC default to 100% renewable.

_____________

Green Acton Land Use Committee Report on 2021 Actions, and Our Goals for 2022

2021 goals:

1) To make a detailed comment in regard to the progress the town has made regarding the goals and strategies of the Acton Housing Production Plan, and make additional comments regarding the HPP.

2) To issue a proposed policy in regard to a) public shade trees b) a bylaw in regard to limiting land clearing on private land.

LUC achieved its goals in regard to some of these matters and not others. 

Perhaps the most successful example of the work we did to fulfill one of these goals was in our detailed proposal in regard to town Public Shade Tree Policy. This position paper was endorsed by GA and received extremely favorable reviews from the Acton Board of Selectmen. A number of our recommendations were then implemented by the town or are in the process of being implemented. Probably the biggest effect that the position paper had was influencing the town to take a bold approach in regard to how we valuate a tree that is destroyed by contractor negligence. The town’s newest policy, issued subsequent to our position paper, now valuates a public shade tree at approximately five times the previous value. This is a great improvement as it creates both a greater disincentive for contractors to engage in destruction of trees, and it provides additional funding for the town to plant new trees in the case of such negligence occurring.

LUC/GA also recommended public shade tree measures that are in the process of being changed by the town. These relate to revising the permitting process to better identify public shade trees at the outset of the permitting process and to provide for a tree hearing early enough in the permitting process to effectively protect trees. There were other items which our report called for that have been less attended to by the town such as the better on-the-ground enforcement needed to protect public shade trees, and the embracing of valuational methods such as the cross-sectional method which we feel would best calculate the ecological value of a public shade tree. As seen in our 2022 goals, LUC will continue to build on its success in influencing town policy in this area and will in 2022 call for further measures to protect and increase the number of public shade trees.

LUC also moved forward on its goals in other areas. In regard to proposing a bylaw to limit land clearing on private land, LUC worked part of the year to collect information on the existing disposition of Acton public land, open space, and tree coverage, to better understand land use and tree loss over time. We interacted with Town Global Information Systems Manager Kristin Alexander to help collect this information but ran into two hurdles: a) the fact that our town hasn’t provided information in many of these areas, and b) the human resources of our small committee were inadequate to find other sources for this information. Because we feel that the biodiversity and climate emergencies call for the rapid implementation of such a bylaw, we plan to move forward on producing draft language on a land clearing limiting bylaw this year. We have made some progress on additional comments in regard to the town Housing Production Plan (LUC and GA had already issued comments in regard to the plan in 2019, some of which were implemented).

Additional committee work included creating position papers on irresponsible, unecological building projects in town: 22 Elm St. and 67 Powdermill Rd., approved by GA, and submitted to town boards to allow the town to take these comments into consideration before permitting decisions were made. Both position papers were well researched and made important points about our concerns in regard to the environmental impact of types of development. In both cases, we worked in coalition with other town members and entities to find common ground. In the case of 67 Powdermill Rd., after a number of concerns were addressed by us and other entities, the developer withdrew his development application. We are happy to say that this beautiful, fragile parcel of land adjacent to the Assabet River now remains generally undisturbed. In contrast, despite LUC and others’ tremendous efforts in regard to 22 Elm St. which consisted of many hours of advocacy again and again appearing before town boards, the town sadly approved the project despite our objections, reminding us of the tremendous amount of education and reform needed to create a town better equipped to protect its ecosystem. We do feel that the public airing of the matters that we raised in regard to 22 Elm St., especially our pointing out how PCRC rules can be used both ecologically and unecologically, educated many people in town, strengthening a growing coalition of Actonians who may be ready soon to support bolder measures to protect our land. 

Going forward, one can refer to our newly issued 2022 goals which call for completing work in these and other areas.

LUC 2022 Goals

Goal: Make Acton more sustainable and just through advocating for bold measures that both preserve and increase green space and trees, reduce development, and ensure that housing in action is affordable and accessible to all.

Objective: LUC by December, 2022 will create a multi-part LUC yearly report in which we will propose policy to be approved by GA (and subsequently the town) with said report containing the following parts: 

Part 1: HOUSING: What we must do now to create ecologically just, affordable, and accessible housing

 Part 2: ZONING: Propose zoning reforms to address the climate, biodiversity and water crises.(network with Water Committee here)

Part 3: TREES ON PRIVATE LAND: Propose Bylaw to Limit Land Clearing 

Part 4: TREES ON PUBLIC LAND: Publicly Owned Trees — Make a Proposal for Further Tree Preservation and Growth

            a) Public Shade Trees

            b) All other trees on town-owned land

Part 5: GREENSPACE: A proposal to create the needed amount of greenspace in Acton

Part 6: ACTON STREETS: A proposal to create streets that are vastly more sustainable, addressing public transportation, walkability, bike-ability, and other aspects of greening our thoroughfares.

_________________ 

Green Acton Water Committee goals for the year were set in March 2021, more or less in line with the Mission at https://greenacton.org/water-committee/ 

Goal: Continue to monitor developments that could impact the quality, quantity or availability of Acton’s waters, and deepen our collective knowledge of Acton’s hydrology and water situation.
Activities & Accomplishments 2021Ideas for future activities
• collaborated with OARS on measuring conductivity along length of Fort Pond Brook.• closely followed Concord’s installation of intake pipe in Nagog Pond. Obtained surveyor’s reports verifying that new intake is shallower than old intake.• closely followed AWD PFAS monitoring• advocated (unsuccessfully) for AWD to join MassDEP/UMass program testing point-of-use (undersink) PFAS filtration systems.• learned much more about PFAS  • with OARS, measure conductivity along Acton portion of Nashoba Brook and its tributaries• learn more about sewer/septic issues
Goal: Continue to educate the public and Green Acton’s membership on water-related issues, through educational events, monthly meetings and write-ups, the Green Acton website and other media, and by mentoring a high school volunteer. 
Activities & Accomplishments 2021Ideas for future activities
• new people attending committee meetings• great ABRHS volunteer (Song Leav)• web posts on River Street Dam, Nagog Brook water temperature, Nagog Pond intake pipe installation, WRG status and reuse meeting, Q&A with AWD Commissioner candidate• Kim Kastens (with Debra Simes) appeared on Acton in Focus TV show• Kim coached the ABRHS Envirothon team for the “Water Resources and Climate Change” segment of the competition• public forum talk about geohydrology of Acton?• public forum talk about monitoring for septic leakage via metabolites (caffeine, pharmaceuticals, etc.)?
Goal: Continue to monitor the groundwater clean up at the NMI and WR Grace Superfund sites, in collaboration with Green Acton’s WR Grace Reuse Working Group. 
Activities & Accomplishments 2021Ideas for future activities
• Advocated for a public information update session about the WR Grace site• Catalyzed a Green Acton task force to prepare information and questions for the WRG status and reuse public info session.• Received and evaluated new PFAS data from around WRG and NMI sites.• Received and evaluated new 1,4-dioxane data from around WRG site, including new sites 
Goal: As appropriate, advocate for policies and procedures that will protect or enhance the quality, quantity or availability of Acton’s waters, building relationships with relevant town boards/committees and staff, the Acton Water District, water-concerned parts of the EPA and the MassDEP, and other water-concerned non-profits. 
Activities & Accomplishments 2021Ideas for future activities
• Advocated for water-related and resilience-fostering aspects of Acton Climate Action Plan• closely followed and actively participated in discussions re Town actions on removal of dam at 53 River Street, Board of Health revisions to septic and stormwater regulations, ARPA spending priorities, AWD Commissioners meetings, and WRAC meetings.• deepened ties to WRAC, AWD commissioners and staff, MassDEP, League of Women Voters environmental committee, OARS, Town Sustainability Director, Conservation Commission.• Advocated for AWD and WRAC to have their voices heard in Climate Action Plan, ARPA spending prioritization, and BoH stormwater/septic regulation revision• Play an active role in revision of town Hazard Mitigation Plan (drought, flood) and Open Space Plan (recharge of aquifer)
Goal: New for 2021: Seek to understand any water-related environmental justice issues that may exist or may arise in Acton, and nudge decision-making processes towards taking environmental justice into consideration. 
Activities & Accomplishments 2021Ideas for future activities
· Advocated for a progressive cost structure (lower cost for lower income) for debt service portion of AWD bills.
· Recruited Danny Factor to speak to AWD Commissioners about how to incorporate voices of lower income residents in planning new debt fee structure.		• Plot conductivity data in tributary streams on environmental justice map.
• As part of Town Hazard Mitigation Plan revision, investigate drought restrictions on private wells.

 Plastics Committee Goals Report for 2020

1. Evaluate the extent of polystyrene use in Acton (Done, but we will update Winter 2022) and identify action steps to address reducing polystyrene pollution (Drafted Polystyrene and Bag Fee bylaws for Spring 2022 Town Meeting) . See Survey of Acton Restaurants attached. Pandemic put action steps on hold due to challenges restaurants are facing just to remain open. 

2. Begin to develop a pipeline for student volunteers who are interested in working on plastic reduction efforts over the next 2–3 years. 

Contacted high school English department and Kate Crosby. On hold due to pandemic virtual and then hybrid classes. No progress due to Covid.
• Created Volunteer Opportunities List See attached

3. Draft a multi-year plan to address reduction of other common sources of plastic pollution. 
• Polystyrene ban on hold. Questions now is whether to do a joint Rigid polystyrene/Styrofoam/straw and when the timing would be best.

Warrant article drafted and shared with Select Board and Board of Health. Shared Polystyrene Reduction and Plastic bag fee warrant article drafts with SB and BoH. Goal is to have a warrant article for Spring town Meeting 2022. League of Women voters Environmental Working Group (Carolyn Platt is facilitator) is tracking, reviewing, educating and advocating for the plastic reduction bills currently in committees in the MA legislature.

• Planned a Plastic Panel Discussion Plastic: Recycle, Reuse, Refuse with co-sponsor Acton Area League of Women Voters for Feb 2021. This was a successful webinar attended by over 100 people.

_______________

2021 Admin/Org Goals

• make GA website easier to access for committees, so committees can each have their own page on which to put content

    Design is largely done, but implementation is stalled due to lack of committee bandwidth.

• reorganize GA Google docs

    Some progress has been made on this, but more to come.

• identify and combine all outstanding admin task lists (sources: admin task list, admin Google docs, other policy strands), and prioritize them

In process

• create list of committees and committee members

    In process

• make sure all committees have a charter

    In process

• achieve initial round of policy creation and adoption

    Mostly achieved; to do: social media policy revisit

• launch creation of GA Operations Manual

    This has not yet been undertaken

• try to engage more people in the Admin process to increase understanding and redundancy

    We have invited people to attend admin committee meetings

GA Minutes: 2021-11-09