"The land here is sinking beneath a fastrising Chesapeake Bay and the pine trees can’t survive the encroaching saltwater. Look closer, says Shawn Riley, a local waterman who makes his living harvesting oysters and blue crabs, and you can see that the process has been picking up speed." (p.3)

“I know those Arctic glaciers are melting and that water has to go somewhere,” Riley says, shrugging in his driveway on a recent, unseasonably warm afternoon. “I guess it’s coming here.” (p. 6)

"Those models show that by the end of the

century more than half of Dorchester County, the third largest county in the state in terms of land area, will be under water. Of course, much of the Eastern Shore — most urgently, the lower counties of Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester, which includes vacation haven Ocean City — is threatened by rising seas, erosion, tidal flooding, and storm surges." (p. 7)

"Due to the region’s geology and Atlantic Ocean currents, sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay are rising twice as fast as the global average and are projected to jump by as much as two feet in the next 35 years, and up to five feet or more by the end of the century." (p. 8)

"Floods have already increased by more than 900 percent in both cities since 1960. Some projections call for 225 or more such floods a year for Baltimore" (p.8)

“By our estimate, we should prepare for a sea level that’s going to come up to our knees by 2050 and then chest-high by the end of the century. It’s no longer a question of ‘if’ sea levels will rise that high, but ‘how fast,’” says Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science." (p. 10)

“People recognize that we are, and will be, consistently challenged by rising sea levels now. And we will have hard choices to make. We lost a lot of people who

moved after Sandy, elderly people who didn’t feel like they could deal with something like that again, as well as young families and newer residents, who don’t want to face these issues their whole lives." (p. 14)

"Under the pressure of compressed air, the toxins would spurt out “20 or 30 feet” into the marsh. Sherman waited until the buggy was drained of the illegal toxic waste.” (p. 15)

"Local waterways had long been contaminated from many sources. The warning was shocking, the first in memory, and it called for limits “due to low levels of chemical contamination”. No more than two meals with locally caught fish a month, it said. No swimming, water sports, or contact with bottom sediments. It was a very belated attempt by the state of Louisiana to warn the public of toxins in its waters." (p. 23)

"He had done his company’s moral dirty work, taken its guilt as his own, and then been betrayed and discarded, like a form of waste. The most heroic act of Lee Sherman’s life had been to reveal to the world a company’s dirty secret, and to tell a thousand fishermen furious at the government that companies like PPG were to blame." (p. 36)

"With his back to the officials, he faced the angry fishermen, lifted a large cardboard sign, and slowly walked from one side of the stage to the other, so all could read it: “I’M THE ONE WHO DUMPED IT IN THE BAYOU.” (p. 30)

"For one thing, PPG was not alone. Other industries had been polluting so much that Louisiana had become the worst hazardous waste producer in the nation. For another thing, the US Congress had established the Environmental Protection Agency (1970), the Clean Air Act (1970), and the Clean Water Act (1972)." (p. 26)

“Trucks rolled in over the road, transporting lead boxes. Above the hole the lids were opened, and the wastes from nuclear reactors tumbled away into the hole. (p. 34)

"In his own mind the scientist was at a loss, but with a look of apparent composure he cut off the sound and, in a manner suggesting that the whole thing had a perfectly plausible explanation, said simply, “Fill it in.” Safer to get rid of something one didn’t understand." (p. 19,20)

"The people of the village were a bit worried about this,

but they consented when it was explained that there would be absolutely no above-ground contamination for several thousand years and that they would share in the profits." (p. 33)

"Bodies of animals used in contagious disease experiments at the universities were brought out, and to these were added the unclaimed corpses of vagrants. Better than dumping all of its garbage in the ocean,

went the thinking in the city, and plans were made for a long pipe to carry it to the hole." (p. 37)

"Whatever one wished to discard, the hole accepted it all. The hole cleansed the city of its filth; the sea and sky seemed to have become a bit clearer than before." (p.40)

"The brainy woman had been wrong. The radio warning all those years ago, when Benji was small, had been wrong. Fifty years, they’d said. In fifty years, the coastlines will be different. Your homes will be underwater. Fifty years." (p. 52)

"They all looked down to see a thin ribbon of water. It cascaded between their feet, and they all watched in a hush as it passed them by, gathering up bits of leaves and fine gravel. The water kept going, making its way down the street until they couldn’t quite make out its leading edge. It was here now, Bev thought." (p.73)

"They could see it, stream after stream of it moving across empty driveways, splitting around the

stop sign post, and then the thousand fingers of it bled together until the water was a blue-gray sheet, rippling along beneath the darkening sky, claiming the land for its own." (p. 74)

"Such a fool, Bev thought to herself again. What would Gordy have done? But it didn’t matter what he would do now. It mattered what he had done then, and what he had done then was laugh, then die." (p.79)