As sea levels rise, landfills along U.S. coasts have become a ticking environmental time bomb. In Massachusetts, an ever-growing pile of ash created by the Wheelabrator landfill’s incinerator threatens habitat for migratory and breeding birds and other terrestrial wildlife. And, according to studies, there are thousands more just like it along the U.S. coastline, threatening not only wildlife, but the people who live nearby.
So why does the federal government have no plan to avoid this looming catastrophe? In his new investigation for The Nation, grantee David Lindorff seeks to answer that question.