More than 22 lead acid batteries and two dozen nickel-cadmium batteries were removed from a 5-mile stretch along Nashoba Brook during the Fall of 2000. This cleanup took place thanks to the persistence
and dedication of an Acton Stream Teams volunteer, the management and financial
support of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction
(EOTC), and the efforts of Clean Harbors employees under the direction
of the EOTC.
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| One of the concrete containers had tipped over along section NB-3 of Nashoba Brook |
Several lead-acid batteries, including the two pictured here, were first
noted by Acton Stream Teams volunteers when they surveyed various parts
of Nashoba Brook during the Spring 1998 Acton Shoreline Survey. These batteries
were stored in cement casings placed on the ground along an abandoned rail
line that parallels Nashoba Brook in North and East Acton. The batteries
were about the size of a typical car battery and were located between road
crossings. In bygone days they sent a signal up the rail line whenever
a train was approaching an intersection. In addition to their presence,
the 1998 Shoreline Survey revealed that some of the protective cement battery
containers had fallen over and the batteries were exposed to the weather
and surrounding habitat. All of the batteries posed potential health, environmental,
and safety hazards.
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| More than 22 lead acid batteries, including this one, were cleaned up from
an area along Nashoba Brook. |
Follow-up surveys of the rail line by an Acton Stream Teams volunteer and
officials from the EOTC (the state agency with current jurisdiction over
the rail line), revealed that nickel-cadmium batteries were also present
along the rail line. Six to eight of these larger nickel-cadmium batteries
were stored in weather-tight, metal containers at each of the road crossings.
These batteries were originally used to power the gates, lights, and bells
at the crossings. Since they were no longer in use, and they contained
toxic material, they were included in the Fall 2000 cleanup.
The battery cleanup is good news since the abandoned rail line has great
potential as a future rail trail for pedestrians, cyclists, etc. Acton Town Meeting has funded a rail trail
feasibility study for the section that would link the Town owned Ice-House
Pond and Morrison properties in East Acton to NARA Park in North Acton.
One of the most striking attributes of the potential rail trail is that
it would connect 1060 acres of town-owned, Acton Water District, and state
owned (MA Division of Fisheries & Wildlife) land.
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