Since 1985, groundwater at the WR Grace Superfund Site in southeast Acton has been extracted and treated for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Data from the 2018 annual monitoring report suggest that this remediation is making progress.
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.
Warrant Articles #39 & 40: Amend General Bylaws: Stormwater Management Revisions, Amend Zoning Bylaw: Stormwater
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More details on 2019 Warrant Articles #39 & 40: Stormwater
Stormwater is water that runs off the land, typically following rainfall, snow melt, or a leak or overflow. On landscapes impacted by human development, stormwater can carry sediment, fertilizer, harmful bacteria, oil, gas, toxic metals, and salt into nearby waterways. Water that runs into storm drains is water that is not available to nurture plants… Continue reading →
Missed the 1,4-Dioxane Panel? View it here.
On Oct. 25, 2018, Acton residents benefited from a crash course on 1,4-Dioxane in Acton’s groundwater and drinking water.
Has Acton’s 1,4-Dioxane situation been getting better or worse?
The previous post looked at the 1.5-year-old effort to divert 1,4-Dioxane in the Nuclear Metals, Inc. (NMI) plume before it can reach the public water supply. This post looks at a longer time frame, and asks whether dioxane levels in the Acton public water supply wells have been getting better or worse over the scale… Continue reading →
The intervention to divert Nuclear Metal’s 1,4-Dioxane from reaching the public water supply
As discussed in earlier Green Acton posts, there is a plume of 1,4-Dioxane flowing from the Nuclear Metals, Inc. (NMI) Superfund Site, passing under the Assabet River, and impacting the water quality at the Assabet 1 public water supply well. Fortunately, there is a pro-active remediation effort underway to intercept and treat this contaminated water.
How can the NMI dioxane plume go underneath the Assabet River?
One of the more surprising aspects of Acton’s 1,4-dioxane situation is that the contaminant plume coming down from the NMI Superfund site goes underneath the Assabet River and thus reaches the Acton Water District’s Assabet 1 public water supply well.
The 1,4-Dioxane Plume from the NMI Superfund Site
Nuclear Metals, Inc. was a company that made depleted uranium munitions for the Department of Defense at a 46-acre site on Rt. 62 in Concord, just across the Concord–Acton town line. These activities resulted in significant contamination of the soil, sediment, and groundwater, and the site is now part of the federal Superfund program. Of… Continue reading →
1,4-Dioxane
1,4-Dioxane is an organic compound that was widely used as a solvent and stabilizer in industrial applications during the late 20th century.