The mud was the most incredible thing: what would turn out to be 4.5 million wheelbarrows of toxic debris wasn’t simply going to be returned to the mountain. She realized that she’d need to help them figure out the safest place to put it, and that people wouldn’t like the answer. “The public-health officer is like the garbage disposal,” she said. “Whatever issue can’t be filed into someone else’s box or slot winds up in the health officer’s.”
