Since the water temperature is often in the forties, Swain has to wear a dry suit, and he swallows so many foul mouthfuls that he begins rinsing with hydrogen peroxide every twenty minutes. Interviewed by an NPR reporter, he says, “Today I can taste…mud, metal, sewage, fuel.” He swims through pesticides, nuclear waste, human feces, mercury, arsenic, zinc, lead, and salmon. When the water is clear enough, he sees scrolling beneath him an extraordinary wasteland of cars, tires, chunks of concrete, metal, and, in areas where dams have buried towns, submerged sidewalks and streets.
