Mission:
Green Acton’s Water Committee works to protect and improve Acton’s ground, surface, and drinking water through information gathering, public education, advocacy, and collaboration with other concerned groups.
More specifically, the Water Committee:
- continues the work of a predecessor organization, ACES (Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety), in watchdogging the Superfund sites that threaten Acton’s water quality
- monitors threats and risks to the quality of Acton’s ground, surface, and drinking water from any and all sources
- monitors threats and risks to water quantity and water availability, including from development, climate change, population growth, and neighboring towns
- gathers, organizes, and disseminates information and data relevant to water in Acton
- works to overcome threats to the quality or quantity of Acton’s water through resident advocacy, information sharing, public education, and other means
Get Involved:
The Water committee meets face-to-face once a month, generally on the second Sunday of the month, 2:30–4:30 in the Acton Memorial library (double check the Green Acton calendar, however). We also have an active email discussion group. The committee welcomes new participants at our meetings or on our discussion list. For questions or to join the email group, please contact us: water-contact@greenacton.org.
Accomplishments:
- Monitor: regularly, attend and participate in discussions of water-related issues at meetings of numerous municipal boards and committees, including the Acton Water District (AWD) Board of Commissioners and AWD FinCom; Town of Acton Water Resources Advisory Committee, Conservation Commission, Board of Health, Select Board, Sewer Commission, Green Advisory Board, and Planning Committee; and counterpart committees in adjoining towns for issues that cross town lines.
- Conduct educational forums: organized public forums on 1,4-dioxane (Oct 2018), the SuAsCo river system (Jan 2020), PFAS (Oct 2020), and Acton’s water cycle (June 2022); also contributed to Acton Water Workshop (Sept 2018).
- Inform voters: Annually, solicit and publish Q&A with candidate(s) running for the AWD Board of Commissioners: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
- Advocate on Town Meeting Warrant Articles: contributed to the development and passage of water-related Citizen’s Petition warrant articles: three linked water articles for 2017 Town Meeting, Water Rate Study for 2023 AWD annual meeting, and Independent Sewer Commission for 2023 Acton Town Meeting.
- Plan for the Future: submitted stakeholder input on water-related issues for municipal planning documents, including the Town of Acton’s Climate Action Plan and Open Space and Recreation Plan.
- Attend to:
- Surface water quality: carried out detailed conductivity surveys of the Fort Pond Brook tributary system (2021 and 2022) and the Nashoba Brook tributary system (coming soon) to document road salt and potential other pollutants.
- Runoff: Educate and advocate for property owners and businesses to minimize runoff of materials harmful to aquatic ecosystems, including phosphate, road salt, and stormwater.
- Superfund sites: advocated successfully at EPA headquarters for additional sampling for 1,4-dioxane at the WR Grace site, provided stakeholder reviews for annual and 5-yearly reports, organized stakeholder questions and comments on WRG reuse plan, and prepared public education materials about the 1,4-dioxane plume encroaching on Acton public water supply wells from the (nearby to WR Grace) Nuclear Metals (NMI) Superfund site.
- Nagog Pond: Monitored and protected Nagog Pond and Nagog Brook from potential harmful impacts of a proposed, enlarged water treatment plant: e.g., provided testimony and stakeholder input to two Board of Selectmen hearings (2017, 2018), the Chapter 91 Waterways hearing, and Acton Town Meeting and Conservation Commission; gave public talks about the Nagog Pond controversy in Concord and Acton, seeking a win-win solution; and measured temperature and streamflow in Nagog Brook in anticipation of potential damage to the cold-water fishery resource.
