We want to highlight several grantees individually and collectively in this issue -- The Lawrence Environmental Action Group, Inc.(LEAG); People for the Environment; Lawrence Environmental Justice Council (LEJC); and Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment.

Each has its own history, its own activists and its own issues and successes. Since 1996 these grantees and a half dozen other local groups have been working together through the Merrimack Valley Environmental Coalition. Air and water pollution caused by incinerators is the issue that united the groups. Citizens in the towns of Lawrence, Andover, Haverhill, North Andover, Tewksbury, Dracut and Methuen have all, in one way or another, been affected by the byproducts of the four incinerators within their seven-town area.

People for the Environment took shape in 1992 when the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District decided to burn sludge at its sewage treatment plant in North Andover. People for the Environment mounted a grueling 18-month campaign which ended with the closure of the incinerator. Dormant and recharging their energy supplies for a couple of years, People became revitalized in 1996 as its general understanding of the hazards of trash incinerators grew. Other groups of neighbors were also becoming increasingly aware of the impacts of this trash technology.

In 1994 ash from one of the local incinerators showered Richard McCarthy's neighborhood. Looking for the source, he realized that there were four major incinerators operating in or within four miles of the City of Lawrence. He formed a residents' group, the Lawrence Environmental Action Group. Educating themselves about the technology and its environmental problems, LEAG members become a voice at City Hall and across Lawrence seeking protection from the pollution. In a city that is around 60% Hispanic, LEAG found it difficult to involve people of color in the group's on-going decision-making and projects.

Incinerators are not just an environmental problem. They are public health and environmental justice issues as well. 1992 marked the beginning of the Lawrence Grassroots Initiative, a group of people who wanted to address environmental, economic and social justice issues. In 1998, the Initiative wanted to more effectively address the environmental justice aspect of the incineration debate within Lawrence City limits, so they formed the Lawrence Environmental Justice Council comprised of 15 city residents, two-thirds of whom represent low income, Hispanic and black neighborhoods. Shutting down the BFI medical waste incinerator in Lawrence is the group's current and main focus. Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment (MVRE) is the newest grantee to join this group, founded in 1998 to address the impacts of a proposed 750-megawatt combined cycle gas-fired power plant to be built in Bracut on the Methuen and Andover town lines. In close proximity to the three operating incinerators, this plant would add 1.2 million pounds of pollutants to the Merrimack Valley.

All four groups are part of the Merrimack Valley Environmental Coalition. They are joined by four other active and many sympathetic health, social service and religious groups presenting a unified and strong voice to close down the very polluting North Andover trash incinerator. They continue to push for tighter regulations for incinerator emissions, stricter site assessment regulations and closer oversight of existing facilities, and better (and on-line) reporting of data to the public by state agencies. Their voices have also forced state and federal agencies to look at the cumulative impacts of siting many combustors in a small valley area. On the positive side, the Coalition members promote recycling/reuse/reduction of trash in their own communities in order to reduce the need for incineration and landfills.