Most environmental indexes on this Earth Day 2004 show real progress, although no one expects the clash of competing interests to fade soon. Since 1970, Earth Day, despite its critics, has shown the power of grass-roots volunteers, although striking a reasonable balance will remain a work in progress.

Only this week, an Ohio environmental appeals board in Columbus rejected a 2002 Cincinnati Board of Health decision that blocked a garbage transfer station in Winton Hills. Last week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency ruled this region out of compliance with the Clean Air Act, but residents on both sides of the Ohio River still seek to end vehicle emissions testing so dear to EPA's heart. Nevada's attorney general is threatening to sue to keep Fernald's radioactive waste from being shipped to a site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. And east-side Cincinnati residents upset over noise from Lunken Airport seek to block expansion at the city-owned airport. At the heart of most of these disputes are issues of local control and Not In My Back Yard.

After years of enduring the ELDA landfill, Winton Hills residents want no part of a garbage transfer station there, and they invoke "environmental justice." They say they have been subjected to an unfair burden of pollution and health risks. Even if the garbage is trucked elsewhere, a transfer station would still expose them to the trash, 200 trucks a day and more. Two years ago, the Board of Health and City Council agreed. They rejected a license for Waste Management of Ohio and questioned the company's ability to operate safely at Winton Hills. Now the state board has ruled in favor of Waste Management, and noted that Ohio lacks an environmental justice law.

Cincinnati Health Commissioner Malcolm Adcock admits that, and also that environmental justice is more federal policy than law, but he argues Ohio law does permit Boards of Health discretion if they believe a garbage site would place an undue burden on neighbors. The issue is likely to be appealed in court.

Earth Day is all about such "grass-roots" people trying to make their piece of the planet better. "Think globally, act locally." Of course, Nevada is saying it doesn't want radioactive waste from Ohio's Fernald cleanup. Some east-side Cincinnati residents say they don't want more jet noise disturbing their peace, while corporate jet owners say they need longer runways, and that newer jets are quieter. Earth Day was always about finding a reasonable balance between competing interests. It never belonged to the eco-terrorists, and as founder Sen. Gaylord Nelson said, the amazing thing was that no one group could have organized it all. It organized itself.

EPA chief Mike Leavitt told the Enquirer Editorial Board, after a March visit to a Cincinnati training site for brownfields cleanup workers, that he was moved by the cleanup passion of a trainee named Melvin. "I didn't realize how it changed hearts," Leavitt said. That grass-roots passion remains the driving force behind Earth Day and successful cleanup efforts.