This article examines the impact of industrial-era waste crises on the hydrology of an urban New England landscape and sites beyond. It chronicles a time when the city of Providence, Rhode Island, was generating ever-higher volumes of trash despite lacking the infrastructure to send it “away.” Instead, from the 1880s until the 1950s, officials encouraged the conversion of inner-city ponds and lakes into landfills, with each filling more quickly than the last. This trend continued until virtually all low, wet places had been filled, along with significant stretches of the urban coastline. Thereafter, having exhausted other options, Providence began to outsource its trash to an exurban landfill (and from there, across chains of the global waste economy to sites unknown to local actors). It is a largely forgotten history, but as the author illustrates, the hydrological conditions of today are still shaped by the waste management practices of the past.
Samia Cohen (Fri,) studied this question.