Officials suspect this region has the highest level of mercury in New England. The question is why and what can be done about it.
By Beth Quimby
Eagle-Tribune Writer 9/19/99

When a new mercury study this summer found fish from Merrimack Valley lakes and ponds are dangerous to eat, environmental advocates in the region were not surprised.The study tested 21 local bodies of water. It found all but two contained fish contaminated with such high levels of mercury that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health immediately issuedwarnings against eating them. The mercury tests continue, and they may eventually confirm what environmental officials have long suspected — that the Merrimack Valley has the highest levels of mercury of any place in New England.No one thinks the problem stops at the state border, but New Hampshire is not as far along in its studies of mercury contamination in its southern lakes.Scientists know that mercury is highly poisonous to humans and wildlife and that once released into the environment, it does not go away.Elevated levels of the toxin have been found in fish throughout New England.What scientists do not yet know and are studying is how mercury is affecting other wildlife — and humans.Scientists know that some fish-eating eagles have elevated mercury levels, and some have suggested it has caused neurological impairment, causing more eagles to collide with buildings, cars and power lines in recent years.Mercury could also be affectmg predators that feed on small mammals, such as rabbits and mice. Plants accumulate mercury as readily as other organ-isms and small mammals are particularly vulnerable to the metallic element.Mercury poisonmg was suspected as the cause of death of at least one Florida panther and may have contributed to a severe population decline in the entire species.While questions remain, Merrimack Valley environmentalists say the high rate of mercury in local fish is enough evidence to warrant immediate action.They want the regions' incinerators shut down. Between them, the three active incinerators in Haverhill, Lawrence and North Andover emit hundreds of pounds of the deadly, persistent substance into the air each year.Massachusetts officials say the fish study raises more questions about mercury pollution than it answers. They also say they are working hard to reduce mercury emissions from the incinerators.Meanwhile, no one knows when, if ever, it will be safe again to eat fish from the contaminated lakes and ponds in the region."Even if we stopped all the incineration today, it would be in the environment for years hence," said Stephanie A. D'Agostino, pollution prevention coordinator at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.Computer showed problemThe Massachusetts fish study was launched more than a year ago by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in part because computer modeling identified the Merrimack Valley as the mercury hot spot of New England.The computer models were done for the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, an association of the New England states, New York, New Jersey and Canadian provinces. The organization tries to find regional solutions to air pollution in the Northeast.The Massachusetts DEP also hoped the studies would address the concerns of Merrimack Valley residents about the impact of the region's cluster of trash incinerators.  Mercury Emissions:Where it Comes FromForty percent of the mercury emissions in Massachusetts is blowing in from out of state, while in New Hampshire 53 percent is from out of state sources. Here is how much mercury is emitted into the air from in state sources, compared to national averages For years, residents had been clamoring for studies of five incinerators within a 5-mile radius.They are the Ogden Martin incinerator off Interstate 495 in Haverhill; the Ogden Martin incinerator off Manchester Street in Lawrence, which has since been shut down; the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District sludge incinerator in North Andover, which is also shut down; the Wheelabrator incinerator on Holt Road in North Andover; and the Merrimack Valley Medical Services medical waste incinerator in Lawrence.Incinerator oprators say the fish-sampling study fails to make a direct link between local incinerators and high mercury levels in the region. They say the problem is caused by a host of different sources.The DEP researchers looked at several species of fish from a cross section of heavily fished lakes and ponds across the Merrimack Valley.Initial results were high enough in some fish species for the Department of Public Health to immediately issue the health advisories that made news this summer.They warned people to limit or completely stop eating fish from some of the ponds.But those early results fall far short of answering questions about the sources of mercury in Merrimack Valley fish, said Carol Rowan West, head of the study at DEP's office of research and standards.She said, so far, it is impossible to say whether the municipal waste incinerators are responsible for the high mercury levels or even whether the mercury levels are higher than in the rest of the state."I would not say today that the levels are definitely more unusual than anywhere else in the state," Ms. Rowan West said.Still, she said, early results seem to suggest that the Merrimack Valley has a problem.For example, she said, about a third of the bodies of water tested statewide have no signs of mercury contamination.In the Merrimack Valley study only one tenth of the bodies of water studied contained fish free from mercury contamination. Those "clean" bodies of water include Stevens Pond in North Lawrence, sandwiched between Malden Mills and Immaculate Conception Cemetery, and Towne Pond in North Andover, on the Boxford border near the edge of Sharpner's Pond Reservation.That would seem to show that the Merrimack Valley has a particular problem.But because the Merrimack Valley study was the first of it's kind in Massachusetts, no one knows how the elavated mercury rates compare to other urban areas in the state.Ms. Rowan West said the U.S. Geological Survey has done some scattered studies that suggest similar high mercury rates will be found in any industrial area.It may be that the fish tested in the study may have been older than fish analyzed in other parts of the state and, therefore, had more time to accumulate mercury.In addition, researchers have not yet analyzed the acidity in Merrimack Valley lakes, which could affect how readily mercury is absorbed by fish.Ms. Rowan West expects answers to some of these questions when the study is completed next spring.Are studies a waste?Several other studies are taking place in Greater Lawrence.The Merrimack Valley Environmental Coalition is conducting its own study of freshwater fish-eating patterns in the area.It is also cooperating with Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management in a study of fish consumption patterns.The federal Environmental Protection Agency is planning to monitor mercury deposits upwind and downwind of Merrimack Valley incinerators. Monitoring was to begin this summer.In New Hampshire, researchers are looking at sediments in some bodies of water in southwestern parts of the state.Some lakes may be contaminated by logs cut from trees felled by the Hurricane of 1938. The logs were treated with mercury as a preservative before being dumped into the water for storage.New Hampshire biologists have relied on a volunteer program to examine fish and so far have sampled species from about 100 of the more than 900 ponds and lakes in the state, said Jody Connor, a biologist with the state's Department of Environmental Services.Some environmentalists say the studies are a waste of time.Kathryn F. Moyes, president of the Lawrence Environmental Action League, said the early fish study results point out once again why cutting emissions at incinerators does not go far enough."Even with the new emissions standards, the North Andover incinerator will still be allowed to put 360 pounds of mercury into the air a year. The mercury levels are already the worst in New England right here, and the state will never be doing enough until we stop all emissions entirely," she said.Environmentalists say that there is no reason to continue studies when research elsewhere has already shown that areas near municipal incinerators have high mercury concentrations.Lee Ketelsen, New England director of Clean Water Action in Boston, said if New Hampshire and Massachusetts were serious about their mercury levels they would set a date for stopping all man-made emissions rather than setting a goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2003.She said Massachusetts does not have to study any more fish samples."How much proof do you need if you are not going to believe the data? What do we want for proof? I think we would have to be poisoned," said Ms. Ketelsen.Incinerator operators, mean- while, say the fish tests prove nothing."People who say that shows our facilities have caused it are absolutely wrong," said Frank Ferraro, spokesman for Wheelabrator.Wheelabrator owns the Massachusetts Refusetech Inc. incinerator in North Andover, which burns trash for the 23 communities in the Northeast Solid Waste Committee."All the study shows is that DEP has sampled only 5 percent of the bodies of water in the state, and of those, 60 or 70 percent have been found above the state's action level," Mr. Ferraro said.He said DEP officials would find sumilar results across the state if they were to test every water body in Massachusetts."Mercury comes from long distances, locally and from historic sources, and to say any one source is the problem is" not accurate, he said.Meanwhile, no one knows when it will be safe to eat fish from contaminated lakes and ponds."That is really hard to say. No one can really put a number on it," Ms. Rowan West said.She said it will only happen after mercury emissions cease and "clean sediments run into the lakes and ponds and cover up the mercury that is there."This report was prepared by environmental reporter Beth Quimby. If you have questions, comments or material to add on this subject, please feel free to contact her by phone at 946-2000, by mail at Box 100, Lawrence, MA 01842 or by e-mail at bquimby@eagletribune.com.

Poison can make you 'mad as a hatter'
   Mercury is toxic to both humans and wildlife.
  In people, toxic doses of mercury can cause developmental effects in the fetus and on the kidney and nervous systems of children and adults.
  Toxic effects include a loss of feeling or a burning sensation in arms and legs, loss of memory, vision and hearing, paralysis, con- genital malformations, kidney damage and death.
  The psychological damage suffered by 19th-century hat makers who worked with mercury gave birth to the expression "mad as a hatter."
  It is the potential damage to fetuses that led New Hampshire and Massachusetts public health officials to issue statewide warnings to pregnant women after high levels of mercury were found in freshwater fish throughout the Northeast.
  Mercury poisoning in fetuses can cause delays in the ability to walk and talk.
  In New Hampshire, public health officials have tested about 100 of the state's roughly 900 bodies of water larger than 10 acres. Women of child-bearing age and children under 6 were warned to limit fresh- water fish dinners to one a month. Others were advised to eat no more than four meals of fish a month.
  In Massachusetts, officials have tested fish in about 150 out of 4,700 bodies of water in the state and issued warnings specific to those bodies of water with high levels of mercury.
  In general, large predator fish, such as bass, have the highest levels of mercury because they live longer and have had more time to accumulate mercury. Other species, such as trout, that do not feed on other fish, are generally much less suspectible to contamination. So far there have been no cases of mercury poisoning from eating freshwater fish from Massachusetts, said Elaine P. Krueger of the Department of Public Health.
 

THE TOWNSMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1999
Wheelabrator says yes
Is there common ground on mercury reduction?
By Taylor Armerding
   Whatever its merits, the timing of a lawsuit brought by a consortium of solid waste disposal companies several weeks ago probably wasn't the best.
    With the dangers of mercury more prominent in the public consciousness, with warnings about eating fish caught in the region's rivers, a suit challenging the state's limits on mercury emissions from the IWSA (Integrated Waste Services Association) sounded not just antienvironmental, but anti-public health as well.
    And that is very unfortunate, according to officials of Wheelabrator Inc., IWSA member and owner of the NESWC trash incinerator in North Andover and the Ogden-Martin incinerator in Haverhill. They say they are as committed as the various environmental groups in the region to eliminating mercury from the waste stream.
Their evidence includes:
  A $25~million retrofit of the plant is now about 20 percent complete. While the company argued from the start that its contract with NESWC communities required them to pay for it, and probably could have won a litigation battle, it eventually settled for splitting the cost. When completed, emissions from the plant will be cut by 80 to 90 percent, and it will comply with the federal Clean Air Act's requirement that such plants use MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology).
     As part of a settlement over a dispute with the state Departinent of Environmental Protection (DEP), the company is funding a program involving 14 hospitals to remove mercury from their waste stream (see related story, below.)
     While he would not discuss specifics of a case now in the courts, Frank Ferraro, Wheelabrator's vice president of environmental management and public policy, says the major reason for it is to try to prevent the state from telling the company it has to do the impossible.
        Other states, he says, have requirements that give municipal incinerators the option of limiting mercury emissions to .028 micrograms per dry standard cubic meter, or to eliminate 85 percent of what comes in.
     Massachusetts, which eliminated the 85 percent option, is essentially demanding that the plant to do what is not technologically possible, he says.
     "It's a little bit like asking you, as a driver, to prevent everybody else on the road from speeding," he says, adding that if the amount of mercury coming into the plant goes up, the emissions will inevitably go up.
     The only way to limit the raw amount of mercury coming from the plant, he says, is to limit what goes in.
     But environmental groups, local officials and state legislators alike aren't buying it. While state Sen. Sue Tucker applauds the company's program aimed at reducing mercury from hospital waste, she still blasts Wheelabrator for taking the state to court.
    "I want them to stop whining and start doing," she says. "This has got to be a team effort, and this (lawsuit) doesn't do that."
     In Andover, the Board of Health voted Monday night 3-0 to urge the DEP to uphold the current standard.
     Andover Health Agent Everett Penney says he doesn't think the standard is "asking the (waste) contractors to do source separation."
     But he says Wheelabrator, which is collecting more than $100 per ton to dispose of local trash, "bought into a process. They have an ethical, moral and contractual responsibility to step up to the plate and do their part. I
don't expect them to pick button batteries out of the trash, but I do expect them to be entrepreneurs and find a way to do this."
    If  Wheelabrator  supports efforts to remove mercury from the waste stream at its source, that's great, he says. But they should spend their money on that, not on a lawsuit."
    In Lexington, the Solid Waste Action Team said it was "disturbed and offended by the IWSA lawsuit attempting to undermine DEP mercury standards."
     Haverhill City Council vice- president Bill Pike wrote to the DEP Commissioner that, in the council's opinion, the lawsuit was based, "solely on economic reasons with no consideration for the health and safety of residents."
     And a group of Merrimack Valley state legislators that includes Tucker and state Reps. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, and David Nangle, D-Lowell, who represents one Andover precinct, wrote earlier this month to Environmental Affairs Secretary Robert Durand, urging him to uphold the .028 microgram standard.
    Merrimack Valley residents, they wrote, "have been adversely impacted by the location of four incinerators in a five-square-mile area. The two largest incinerators, the Ogden-Martin plant in Haverhill and the Wheelabrator Technologies  plant  in  North Andover, burn 37 percent of the trash burned in the state. This is a disproportionate burden on our coimnunities that will be greatly compounded  if the state's mercury emissions standard is lowered..."
    The federal standard, they contend, is based only on control technologies, while the state set a stricter standard by looking at health risks.
    Beyond the lawsuit, however, the two sides do appear to be in general agreement. Both say that to effectively eliminate mercury from the waste stream, it has to be eliminated from manufacturing, or at least recycled and diverted before it ends up at incinerators.
   Ferraro says it will take a combination of things. "Products will have to be labeled, people will have to know who to call and where to take it," he says.
   Tucker agrees with that much. She is co-sponsoring a bill that she says would establish "a comprehensive system for labeling, collecting, disposing and recycling products containing mercury.
   "Because most citizens are unaware of the number of products that contain mercury, labeling would be an important step in raising public awareness," she says. "This bill calls for an entirely new way of dealing with batteries, thermometers, fluorescent light bulbs and other products."
   And, she adds, all the "key stake holders," including manufacturers,  consumers,  government and disposal facilities, have to share the burden.
   Ferraro  says  Wheelabrator will continue to support such efforts, with both money and staff. "But there is a lot of opposition from industry to labeling," he says.
   Tucker knows about that as well. "I know they're  very opposed to it," she says. "I just sat through a four-hour hearing, where they (manufacturers) were saying it wouldn't work.
"But we're prepared to stand up to the pressure."

New Letters to the Editor
Wheelabrator dupes Valley residents again
Editor, Townsman:                                                              November 4th,1999
   It appears that residents of the Merrimack Valley and the NESWC communities have been duped by the incinerator industry once again.
  You  may  recall  Wheelabrator emphatically assuring North Andover's Planning Board that if they were granted the necessary permits to install "state-of-the-art"  emission-control devices, it would be a piece of cake to operate within the newly adopted mercury emission guidelines.
   With their permits now safely secured,  Wheelabrator  has  joined Ogden-Matin in suing the DEP for adopting "unachievable" mercury standards. Under the glare of public scrutiny, Wheelabrator is scrambling to save face by claiming that the lawsuit does not apply to the NESWC incinerator.
    Supposedly, they are worried about another incinerator that does not have the proper control equipment. One wonders why installing the same "state-of-the-art technology" proposed for the NESWC incinerator would not work equally well on the incinerator of concern. Suffice it to say, their explanation is far from convincing.
     Ironically, while Wheelabrator claims that minimizing mercury in the stack is contingent upon 'minimizng mercury in the trash, a second part of the lawsuit contests the requirement for them to implement a mercury separation plan.
     Contrary to press coverage, Wheelabrator and Ogden-Martin are not being asked to physically remove button batteries from the trash. They are simply required to implement an educational campaign to discourage residents from throwing mercury products into the garbage.
      If the incinerator industry loses the suit but truly cannot achieve the new standards, who will suffer the consequences?
Kathryn F. Moyes Lawrence

Make a difference on hazardous waste
Editor, Townsman:                                                                   October 21st,1999
    While we are talking about mercury, there's the fluorescent bulb. Three years ago there were EIGHT fluorescent Bulbs in my home. Today there are 27. All new, compact, energy efficient bulbs are fluorescent and like the old tube fluorescent, may contain mercury. State law requires us to dispose of fluorescents via town-provided hazardous waste collections.
    Town officials provide ONE COLLECTION A YEAR (Nov. 6)! Our representatives in Boston, provide NO ENFORCEMENT. Meanwhile we are warned not to eat the fish caught in our lakes from Haverhill to the coast. Swordfish are banned because of their mercury content, and local soil and rivers are found with high concentrations of mercury.
    Last spring it was discovered that one of the largest landlords in Andover (10 large buildings), was disposing fluorescent bulbs through the regular trash collection process. Once discovered, that was corrected quickly by a manager who is aware of the importance of protecting the air from further pollution. But what about other landlords of apartments, retail businesses and industry? Ask the people whose offices and stores you frequent. Ask your employer, your landlord, your neighbors.
    You can help make a difference. If we are to stop DUMPING mercury, lead, cadinium, etc. into our environment we need to understand alternative costs. We need to know the costs of removing these toxins from the input and from the emissions. We need to take action now to stop the input until the long range plan is put into effect.
    We must continue to educate, reduce toxicity of products and increase collection options for toxic trash collection.
Norman Viehmann
35 Lucerne Drive
 

Hospitals join in mercury waste reduction
     Hale Hospital, of Haverhill, recently announced it would join other hospitals and health care facilities across the country in "Partners for Change: Mercury Challenge," a national effort to eliminate the use and improper disposal of mercury.
    The mercury reduction program, called a Supplemental Environmental  Project  (SEP)  for Region 1 EPA, is being funded by Wheelabrator Technologies, as part of a settlement agreement with the state DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), and involves 14 area hospitals. The experiences of Hale and other facilities will be shared with other hospitals in this region and throughout the country to assist in their mercury reduction efforts.
   Hale CEO Robert Ingala signed a pledge in August agreeing to eliminate the use of all mercury containing devices by the year 2003.
    Gregg Perry, the hospital's mercury reduction project coordinator, calls the program an important initiative because, over the years, concentrations of mercury have been increasing to dangerous levels for both human and wildlife.
    "For example, mercury is affecting the loon population," he says. "Also pregnant women are being advised not to eat freshwater fish, because mercury slows fetal and child development, preventing the brain and nervous system from developing normally."
    Among the events scheduled is an employee-wide thermometer swap at the Employee Safety Fair today, Thursday Oct 21. Employees will bring their mercury-filled thermometers from home and trade them in for environmentally-safe digital thermometers. The hospital has begun removing all thermometers and blood-pressure equipment that contains mercury, and has begun a recycling program for fluorescent lamps and telemetry batteries.
   "Policies and procedures have been written to ensure the proper use and disposal of mercury~containing products. We are committed to this project 110 percent," Perry says. It is estimated the mercury removal program will cost the hospital $10,000.
    Mercury, which is poisonous to humans and animals, easily moves from a liquid to a gaseous state.Therefore, it is very mobile and persistent, and can easily makes its way into the atmosphere, soil and ground water.
    The EPA warns that while trace amounts of mercury have always been present in the environment, concentrations of this chemical have been increasing to dangerous levels. Mercury in low doses is a neurotoxin affecting the functioning and development of the nervous system. Depending on the level of exposure, it can have varied health effects ranging from mental retardation to death. Mercury affects the human brain, spinal cord, kidneys and liver.

Letters to the Editor
DEP Waffles on Mercury
To the editor:
   I look forward to the day that I can calmly dismiss ludicrous comments uttered by such political entities as the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Instead, I am plagued on this beautiful day with a gnawing outrage that leads me to vent my feelings in a letter to the editor.
   In your article "Toxic hot spots" the DEP desperately attempts to dismiss the unusually high levels of mercury contaminating fish found in water bodies surrounding the region's incinerators. In the face of their own data, they speculate that "maybe the fish tested in the study were older than fish analyzed in other parts of the state and therefore had more mercury." What an embarrassing excuse to ignore the mounting evidence linking the incinerators' major contribution to the pollution of our Valley.
   The DEP points to an infinite list of unknowns preventing this link, however, here are some disturbing facts that we do know.
.   1.The DEP was aware that the Wheelabrator incinerator was emitting extraordinarily high levels of mercury and dioxin for over a decade, yet they took no action until recent public outcry demanded a study.
    2. Computer modeling points to the Merrimack Valley as having the highest levels of mercury deposition in all of New England. Actual fish studies are substantiating this, but the DEP now seems to need birth certificates from the fish to substantiate their ages.
    3. No environmental studies have been performed on dioxin. Long before DEP studies are complete, they are issuing a permit to the largest mercury emitter in the state - the Wheelabrator incinerator to allow it to continue operating. Rather than erring on the side of caution when making decisions that concern our health, the DEP once again errs on the side of the incinerator operators. Who, exactly, is the DEP protecting?

Joan Kulash North Andover
 

Beware being lulled into complacency
   To the Editor:
   They say that if you place a frog in a beaker of lukewarm water and gradually increase the temperature, the frog will accept the deadly rise in heat and ultimately boil to death. Apparently, the tendency to be lulled into complacency in the face of danger is not unique to the poor frog. Step back, citizens of the Merrimack Valley, and observe your acceptance of the gradual poisoning of your food and natural resources
   Last week's news revealed an alarming story. The fish in our local water bodies have the highest level of mercury contamination in the entire state. According to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the main source of this very potent toxin is trash incin- erators. The Department admits that the biggest culprit is the North East Solid Waste Committee (NESWC) incinerator located in North Andover. Despite this, the DEP is blithely going about its business of granting a permit to this facility that will allow it to continue emitting an estimated 364 pounds of mercury every year for another 20 years.
   Our own state representatives lack the temerity to close the NESWC incinerator for fear that the facility's owner will sue. The irony of this is appalling — an incinerator emits thousands of pounds of a deadly and persistent poison into our environment and the owners of that facility may sue if we take action.
    Wheelabrator accuses concerned citizens that they are relying on" innuendo" and scare tactics to close the incinerator. However, one need not rely on innuendo when the facts speak clearly for themselves. More frightening than the facts is our resignation to the gradual poisoning of our environment.
    The deadly results of our inaction will resonate into the lives of future generations well into the next century.
JERRY and JOAN TEMPESTA North Reading
 

Introducing Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment
    The Merriniack Valley Residents for the Environment (MVRE) is one of the newest local groups to form. Its charter is to help save the Merrimack Valley environment. The group is comprised of residents from Dracut, Methuen and Andover but is open to all residents of any community in the Valley. Anyone interested in preventing the air we breathe and the water we drink from polluting us, our families and neighbors should consider lending their support to this organization, organizers said.
    Currenfly the group is focusing its efforts on opposition to the proposed power plant to be built on the Brox properties in Dracut, on the town line next to Methuen and Andover. The reason the group believes this plant is such a threat is, in their view, there are already too many polluters in the area near where the plant is to be constructed. Among those polluters are two trash-burning power plants, New England's largest medical waste incinerator and three major highways. In addition, since Andover's water supply, Haggett's Pond, is located directly downwind from the two proposed smokestacks, it will be a particular threat to all Andover residents.        Given the recent findings in the Merrimack Valley of high cancer rates and the highest respiratory disease rate in the state, any additional polluters are of grave concern as these diseases may be attributed to the cumulative pollution levels in the area.
    The activities in which th groups  within  MVRE  are engaged  include  scientific research, legal, media, lobbying, community action, and fundraising.
Special talents are critically needed with knowledge in acoustics, geology, meteorology, economics (especially property valuation), state and federal environmental permitting (including air, water, wetlands etc.), fundraising, air and/or noise modeling,  Web page development and energy facility siting requirements. And for those who simply want to ge involved, there is a need for letter and mailbox stuffers, street and community organizers and activists.
  For more information about Merrimack Valley Residents for the Environment and Dracut's proposed power plant, call MRVE's hot line at 681-6486.
 

City backs tough limits on mercury
Haverhill leaders are fighting to keep mercury-emission standards set by the state in place, despite a lawsuit by owners of trash incinerators.
By Aglala Pikounis
Eagle-Tribune Writer

   HAVERHILL — The region's two trash incinerators should stick to the tough mercury emission standards they promised to follow earlier this year, City Council said.
   Council is asking other people in the Merrimack Valley to join the fight to protect residents' health.
In the face of a lawsuit which threatens to overturn strict rules over the amount of mercury coming from the incinerator smokestacks, councilors said they support state guidelines set more than a year ago.Last night councilors supported the rules by sending letters to the state departments of Environmental Protection and Public Health and state leaders. Councilors also said they will ask other environmental groups in the Merrimack Valley to stand by the standards.
   The state's emission rules are stricter than federal standards and are being challenged by Haverhill's Ogden Martin incinerator and the Wheelabrator Technologies plant in North Andover.
Owners of the trash plants, through a Washington, D.C.-based industry association, are suing the Department of Environmental Protection. They say the standards cannot be met with available technology.
    But local environmentalists and city leaders said incinerator owners agreed to follow the regulations earlier this year when they submitted their emission-control plans.
   "We know that Ogden Martin and Wheelabrator can meet these standards," Councilor William C. Pike said.       "They've already told us they can."
    Christopher D. Haynes, of Andover, a Haverhill businessman who handles special waste, said one way the city can decrease the amount of mercury being emitted into the air is to stop local incinerators from burning pharmaceutical waste and mercury-containing products coming from other states.
    Mr. Haynes said under state law, the city's Health Board has the power to order incinerators to stop burning waste from other states, if that trash has too many products that contain mercury and does not meet regulations.
    "If the problem is at the source, in the trash, we can control the source in Massachusetts," he said. "But what are we doing when the source (trash) is not coming from the state?"
    Aglaia Pikounis covers Haverhill neighborhoods. She can be reached at 373-8877 during business hours, by mail at 181 Merrimack St., Haverhill MA 01830,or by e-mail at  apikounis@eagletribune.com.

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