Green Acton Statement to EPA about 1,4-Dioxane at WR Grace

On October 22, 2019, Kim Kastens, a Green Acton Director and Chair of the Water Committee, traveled to the Headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC to make a request about remediation of 1,4-dioxane at the WR Grace Superfund site. The trip was in association with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice,… Continue reading →

Summary of Fifth WR Grace Five-Year Review

Overview: The Environmental Protection Agency has released a new Five-Year Review (FYR) Report on the WR Grace (WRG) Superfund site, a former industrial site that straddles the town line between Acton and Concord. The purpose of a five-year review is to evaluate how well a clean up plan (“remedy”) is working to be protective of… Continue reading →

Green Acton Public Statement re: Proposed Piper Lane Building Project, 7/9/2019

[Sent on 7/15/19 to the Board of Selectmen and the Zoning Board of Appeals, from Debra Simes (President) and Jim Snyder-Grant (Co-President), along with a request that this be taken into account in any future deliberations on this project.] This statement asserts Green Acton’s opposition to the proposed application currently under review for the Piper… Continue reading →

Acton’s Health Department and Water Quality

Water is essential to life, and thus to health. Here in Acton, the Town Health Department oversees many water-related activities and entities. It attends to public and private wells, swimming pools, and the NARA Pond swimming beach, potential sources of groundwater contamination (including septic systems, underground storage tanks, and two Superfund sites), and potential sources… Continue reading →

Lack of Progress on Remediation of 1,4-Dioxane at WR Grace Superfund Site

The previous post described the recent progress that has been made in reducing the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at the WR Grace Superfund Site by extracting and treating the groundwater, as called for in the 2005 Record of Decision (ROD). Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for 1,4-Dioxane.

Green Acton Provides Stakeholder Input for WR Grace Superfund Site Five-year Review

As part of its regular schedule of every-five-years reviews of each active Superfund site, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks input from affected communities. The WR Grace site is up for review this year, and EPA sought input from Green Acton, the Acton Water District, and the Town of Acton Health Department.