(FORTUNE Magazine) – You can't get away from the environment. It's everywhere, and so is talk about buying into companies that handle solid waste, dirty water, and polluted air. For that very reason, good buys are hard to find. Since President Bush announced his new clean air bill, for example, stocks of companies that build scrubbers or supply the lime used in them have become as hot as the exhaust gases they cleanse. For conservative, conservationist buyers, mutual funds that specialize in environmental stocks may be the best path to the greensward. Boston's Fidelity Investments started up its Select Environmental Services Portfolio last June, and Freedom Capital in the same city recently launched its Freedom Environmental Fund. But more intrepid souls may choose to undertake their own quest for the occasional rose among the ash heaps. The resurgence of public interest in the environment has helped make stock market stars out of solid-waste disposers Waste Management of Oak Brook, Illinois, and Houston's Browning-Ferris. Both are trading at over 20 times earnings, well above the market multiple of 14, though most market watchers feel the stocks are fairly priced as industry leaders in a recession-proof business. There will be garbage to dump, no matter what. Lawrence Greenberg, who runs Fidelity's environmental fund, still thinks these stocks are good buys but sees more upside in Browning-Ferris. He also likes the cheaper Laidlaw Transportation, based in Burlington, Ontario, whose stock trades over the counter. Well-known as the operator of a 20,000-strong fleet of school buses, Laidlaw is also the third-largest handler of solid and hazardous waste in North America. Chemical Waste Management, 81.1% owned by Waste Management, is the big, expensive, pure play in toxic waste cleanup but has a nosebleed P/E of 30. Beth Heming of Chicago Corp. thinks little Canonie Environmental Services, an over-the-counter outfit in Porter, Indiana, that treats hazardous dumps, could be just as profitable to the investor in the long run. Companies that deal with tainted water and air are tougher calls. Drexel Burnham's Leone Young notes that ''most of these little companies weren't publicly traded during the last recession.'' Because they are generally growth % stocks, P/E multiples are very high and short-term gains unlikely. Says Richard Eastman of Blunt Ellis & Loewi: ''This group is not for conservative investors.'' But if you are ready to hold on for two or three years, Eastman thinks Groundwater Technology, a small over-the-counter company in Norwood, Massachusetts, that treats what comes out of wells, could pay off handsomely. Despite a P/E of 30, Greenberg favors Ionics, a manufacturer of water- purification equipment located -- appropriately -- in Watertown, Massachusetts. Ionics has begun selling purified drinking water to businesses under the brand name Aqua Cool. Says Greenberg: ''It has a very good chance of becoming the first national bottled-water company.'' David Beckwith, who runs Freedom Capital's environmental fund, thinks there are still buys in companies supplying lime for scrubbers. But even aggressive Wall Streeters find their stocks untouchably high now. When it comes to dirty air, they say, Trion, a Sanford, North Carolina, maker of air filters for all sorts of places from living rooms to Trident submarines, currently offers the best hope of cleaning up from cleaning up.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: NOT DOWN IN THE DUMPS Analysts are intrigued by these companies that clean up the environment and dispose of waste. Ionics makes purifiers (left) that supply Buckeye, Arizona, with 900,000 gallons of water a day.