The $2,000 will be used to train citizens about air pollution.
WEST PARIS – A clean air and water citizens group has won a $2,000 grant from the New England Environmental Fund to educate and train citizens about air pollution.
The Western Maine Citizens for Clean Air and Water of West Paris will use the funds to train people to sample air quality in their neighborhoods. The sealed samples will then be sent away to see if the chemicals contained within them exceed standards for healthy air as set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“It’s really a pilot study to inform citizens about air pollution,” said Ginny Callen of the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund. Other cities have successfully involved residents in taking an active role in air pollution concerns by offering this training, she said.
“It’s a method to monitor air quality” that gets the whole community involved through a “bucket-brigade” approach to rotating the air sampling packets on a regular basis.
The grant is the second $2,000 received by the group, which formed several years ago after studying the relationship between air quality of the greater Rumford region and the MeadWesvaco Corp. paper mill in Rumford.
An orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Ingrid Erikkson, leads the group, along with Jenny Orr of West Paris, Shirley Damm of West Paris, Jeannette Baldridge of West Paris, and Terry Martin of Rumford Point.
The group formed in 2001 and hired a lawyer to review MeadWesvaco’s upcoming air emission license. Group members were out in force to protest renewal of that license at a hearing held by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The license has since been granted, with conditions.
The grant funds require the group to hold a number of public informational sessions about their plans.
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