Angela Graves has lived in Merrimack almost all her life. She grew up aware of the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant on the edge of town, and as a teenager learned alongside her community of the dangerous “forever chemicals” it emitted for years. Now, eager to see those pollutants scrubbed from her hometown’s soil and frustrated by a lack of progress, Graves herself has proposed an experimental solution: fungi.

“They haven’t made a remediation plan ,” said the recent Plymouth State University graduate who now works as a field organizer with the League of Conservation Voters, though she is pursuing her remediation work independently. “So I was like, all right, I’m tired of waiting. I’m just going to make my own.”

Graves has secured preliminary support from the New Hampshire Depart

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