Toms River

Toms River is a community near the New Jersey shore. At the beginning of the book, it was sparsely populated, and many people lived off the land. It was in the middle of nowhere, as far as Ciba-Geigy was concerned. It was a perfect place to build a factory because there was no one around to complain about the pollution. As transportation improved, the town grew. The factory grew too. Soon, they were butting up against each other and their impact upon each other was unavoidable.

Chemical plant

The chemical plant goes by many names throughout the book, as a result of mergers. The most common names are Toms River Chemical and Ciba-Geigy. It is the source of a lot of pollution in the area, and remains so as of the 2015 Afterword by the author. The plant has employed thousands of people over its decades of...