Trouble piling up for contractor storing dirt near rotary

Dirt pile drama is escalating at the Route 2 rotary after an Acton contractor missed a deadline to clear out a storage operation on Acton land.

Natural Resources Director Delia Kaye issued a violation notice against Acton-based MIG Corp. last week. MIG could eventually face fines, and the Natural Resources Commission plans to discuss the matter at its meeting on December 17. 

While officials try to boot MIG, some question how Acton let this happen just a stone’s throw from protected wetlands. Town brass acknowledge they originally left the NRC out of the equation. 

“Clearly, with hindsight, it would have been great if we got ahead of it,” commission Chair Sarah Grimwood told The Acton Bridge. 

Buffers and jurisdictions

The land in question sits behind the Gulf station at the rotary. MIG got the green light to use the land in 2022 and has since piled dirt in several spots.

Officials said they determined last month that MIG had operated outside its permitted area. Town counsel asked the contractor to leave by November 15. The piles and heavy equipment remained on the property Monday morning.

Kaye sent the violation letter on November 18. The town’s MIG point person, Chris Keefe, didn’t answer an updated Bridge request for comment. 

The town’s access agreement said crews would store soil and materials from a state construction project at Kelley’s Corner in Acton. Regardless of whether MIG also used the site for other projects, Grimwood said, “they put a lot more there than was expected.”

State law requires extra review for work within 100 feet of a wetland. Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said in a previous memo that even the permitted area under MIG’s agreement might have been too close to wetlands and an on-site well. 

Lafleur said leaders thought they were outside NRC jurisdiction. A new map suggests otherwise and shows the permitted area intersected with the buffer zones.

Although the NRC wasn’t part of the access agreement process, its staff liaison — Kaye — said in her violation letter that staff put MIG on notice about wetlands in February 2023, just a few months into the license. 

Kaye’s November 2025 letter ordered MIG to halt all activities around wetlands “until the Natural Resources Commission makes a determination as to the most appropriate next steps.” 

‘A huge problem’

Former Warner’s Pond Task Force member and wetland scientist Keith Hannon said he’s been following issues at the MIG storage site and it’s “questionable” that all the material came from Kelley’s Corner.

Among his concerns, Hannon told The Bridge, “there’s definitely a lack of due diligence,” and the town should have taken more aggressive action sooner.

He said officials rightfully hold residents to a “very high standard” around wetland laws. In this case, he said, “suddenly the town gets to decide which laws apply to them and which don’t.” 

That, he said, is “a huge problem.”

Hannon noted the town’s land lease bylaw, which requires the Select Board to approve license agreements. 

Select Board Chair Mark Howell told The Bridge he thinks NRC and the Natural Resources Division are “appropriately addressing the current conditions” and “it’s right to sort of review how we came to have this situation.”

Contrary to Hannon, however, he held that this “would not normally be a Select Board issue.” He said it was a short-term lease and “well within the town manager’s portfolio.”

Kaye asked MIG to provide a timeline and plan by December 10 to stabilize and remove its materials. MIG also must provide a timeline for restoring what was once an open, grassy field. 

Kaye asked MIG to attend the December NRC meeting, at which point the commission will discuss issuing a formal enforcement order. 

Grimwood recapped the situation during a meeting of committee chairs last week and previewed next month’s session. “We will see what they have to say,” she said.