Thursday, December 30, 1999 Older Editions

In praise of air, water

By Rebecca Lipchitz

From air quality to food safety, from trash disposal to beavers, Andover residents have faced a variety of public health and environmental issues in 1999.

And while residents have had a crash course in the environmental impact of a power plant, the major lesson learned on all fronts was that there is more and more to learn.

Many Andover residents fought the proposed construction of a 750-megawatt, natural-gas power plant in next-door Dracut, citing air quality, noise and water consumption as reasons to turn it down.

When it comes to trash disposal, air quality and mercury levels in the region's water bodies have prompted battles over the NESWC incinerator in North Andover.

The incidence of cancer and pediatric asthma is also reported to be high in the Merrimack Valley.

And others considered the location of a cellular phone tower installed in Lawrence next to Andover's Shepley Street a public health issue.

Andover's Director of Public Health Everett Penney says residents may be more sensitive to projects' environmental impacts, or the effects of environmental degradation on public health, but if people learned anything this year, it's that Andover has a long way to go in addressing most health and environmental issues -- partially because they are not confined within the town's borders.

"We've got to have a much more regional approach to these things," Penney says, citing the regional Healthy Communities Tobacco Awareness program as an example.

"It shows that if the state throws out some money as a carrot, communities can band together to do something about a common problem," he says.

Has money been the motive been behind other environmental concerns?

Members of the Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment, a group opposed to the Nickel Hill Energy Project in Dracut, say they oppose the plant for environmental reasons. But they also acknowledge that if the power plant is built, it could decrease property values in some areas.

While there are clearly environmental issues with NESWC, the noise about it wasn't all that loud until an anticipated rise in electricity prices never materialized, and local trash disposal prices began to rise above market rate.

That led residents to ask the Legislature for help.

Not just about money

But some residents say certain environmental issues are getting more attention even if they have no strings attached to wallets.

Marta Hornidge, of the Andover Village Improvement Society, says membership is up. While more people are hiking on AVIS trails and helping to further AVIS preservation causes, there are also more people living in Andover, Hornidge says.

She also cites a steady participation in local Appalachian Mountain Club trips held in or around Andover every Sunday.

She says the interest in Andover in part is due to a greater interested in environmental issues.

Andover physicist and environmental consultant Michael Brower, author of The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, declines to comment on local environmental issues, but notes that environmental concerns have been present in most presidential campaigns.

"On the national scene, I would say there's been a major change in environmental awareness," he says.

Despite the popularity of environmental issues, few people are willing to tackle the ones that make the most difference, he says, such as greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

Air quality may be the only national issue that has been addressed to a useful degree, he says.

"I would say air quality is probably one issue moving more or less in the right direction," Brower says, due to more restrictive standards in national pollution regulations.

The Federal Clean Air Act of 1990 required the NESWC incinerator to be equipped with more advanced pollution control equipment by the year 2000.

Locally, Massachusetts recently tightened regulations on mercury emissions, and the town posted warnings to pregnant women and children not to eat fish from Haggetts or Pomps ponds due to mercury levels too high for fish consumption.

Board of Health Chairman Douglas Dunbar says reportedly high cancer rates in Andover have not been scientifically linked to emissions from the local incinerator, but the power-plant proposal of the Nickel Hill Energy is still cause for concern among public health officials.

A recent update to a state report on the incidence of cancer between 1990 and 1995 shows Andover had slightly more cases than expected of breast cancer and colon or rectal cancer in women, and in prostate and testicular cancer in men during those years, Dunbar says.

The numbers were not alarmingly large, but worth noting, he says.

"It's not startling, but it's something that catches a professional health person's eye."

It's about awareness

Dunbar adds that he believes one reason Andoverites may be more aware of public health issues is that Penney works to fully inform the public of many issues.

South Andover residents are now concerned with the environmental impact of a new sewer system. To bring sewers to an area riddled with failing septic systems would be a big step forward for public health in Andover, Dunbar says.

While Andover could not prevent Dracut from approving the Nickel Hill project, local officials and residents continue to exercise as much control over the environmental impacts of the plant as they can, Dunbar says, an effort also led by Penney and local activists.

Selectmen Mary French says the board's support of MVRE's opposition to the project was one of several things selectmen have done to help preserve the environment.

She also cites the board's support of the Community Preservation Act which, if passed by the Legislature, would provide money for open space acquisition, affordable housing and historic preservation.

Resident Norm Viehmann, who volunteered at this year's annual toxic waste collection day, says people had so many questions about environmental issues, he talked for two hours at the event.

"I was hoarse at the end," he says.

The collection drew more than 200 people, or twice the number who attended last year, he says.

While he is encouraged that residents are more aware of the dangers of putting fluorescent lights and mercury batteries into the waste stream, Viehmann says to make a real difference in the environment, Andover must aggressively encourage businesses in industries to recycle.

While some businesses are committed to recycling, others are not, he says.

"There is a tremendous amount that still needs to be done," he says.

This year Viehmann himself has begun to make a point of buying recycled paper products, and recycling some plastics.