A Merrimack advocate has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, a yearly award that goes to a person from each continental region who works to protect nature and the environment.
Laurene Allen is this year鈥檚 North American winner of the prize, which has been awarded to 233 people in the past 36 years.
Allen began her work as an advocate in 2016, after state officials announced PFAS chemicals, a group of man-made chemicals connected to a variety of health conditions, used at the Saint-Gobain manufacturing facility were found in her town鈥檚 water system.
She spent the following years reading everything she could find on that class of chemicals, meeting with neighbors and government officials and consulting with scientists. She co-founded Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, and later helped create the National PFAS Contamination Coalition.
Those groups have advocated for a variety of changes, including stronger state and federal protections around legal PFAS levels in drinking water and for the clean-up of contaminated sites.
Regulations on PFAS chemicals in drinking water tightened and scrutiny on the company that emitted PFAS into Merrimack鈥檚 environment 鈥� Saint-Gobain 鈥� increased. In 2023, the company they were closing their plant.
But despite the closure of the plant, Allen says her work will continue.
鈥淭here's all these chapter endings, but the book never ends,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淚f only it was done there. We're left with an environment with contamination everywhere. And we're also left with a site that is yet to have an appropriate cleanup plan.鈥�
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Allen said it was astonishing to be chosen for the prize. And, she said, she hopes she can share more of what she鈥檚 learned about chemical contamination and what she calls a 鈥渂roken system.鈥�
鈥淚 really want people to know that the Merrimack story is a travesty that never should have happened. But we also know, all across the nation and all across the world, there are many, many communities with environmental contamination, discharges, emissions, and being exposed to things that never, ever should have been allowed,鈥� she said.
Allen says she鈥檚 hoping the prize might give her more chances to engage with people on PFAS contamination and advocate for impacted communities, and she鈥檚 thankful for the opportunity to bring more awareness to her work. But, she said, she felt somewhat amused at being honored.
鈥淵ou just do what you have to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn't become this person with an agenda. I did it because it really needed to be done.鈥�
