Here’s a corner of Rumney Marsh in 1938 vs 2025, one of the clearest examples of how this landscape has been reshaped by human activity.

In 1938, Rumney Marsh stretched almost continuously from Route 107 to the Saugus River. The aerial shows a vast network of winding tidal creeks and straight, grid-like mosquito control ditches that were dug by hand in the early 20th century. These ditches were meant to reduce standing water and control mosquito populations, a practice that was common in coastal wetlands throughout New England.

Of course, there were already water quality concerns in the 1930s. Nearby cities and industries discharged wastewater and runoff that would have affected the marsh even then. But structurally, the marsh was much different. Its channels and creeks were intact, tidal flow was widespread, and the ecosystem still functioned as one large continuous wetland.

That began to change in the mid-20th century. Following World War II, the City of Revere established the Dewey Daggett Landfill on the western side of the marsh, named for a longtime public works superintendent. Like many landfills of its time, it was unlined and accepted a mix of municipal and industrial waste. Filling operations steadily expanded through the 1950s and 1960s, cutting off several natural creeks that once connected to the Pines River and Diamond Creek.

In the early 1970s, a new chapter began. A waste-to-energy incinerator was constructed at the northern edge of the site and began operating in 1975. The facility was designed to burn household waste and deposit the remaining ash onsite. Portions of the old Dewey Daggett landfill were capped, and new containment cells were built within the marsh to receive incinerator ash. This became known as the Saugus Ash Landfill, sometimes referred to as the Revere Ash Landfill depending on jurisdiction. The facility has had several different operators since it opened.

During the 1980s, a bentonite-slurry wall was installed around the ash monofill in an attempt to hydraulically isolate it from the surrounding marsh. The wall was designed to limit groundwater movement in and out of the landfill. Unlike modern double-liner systems that include a bottom liner and active leachate collection, the Saugus site operates under older variances that allow leachate to be recirculated within the pile rather than removed.

While the slurry wall is intended to contain leachate, it is not a permanent or infallible structure. Over decades, bentonite walls can crack, settle, or thin due to shifts in the surrounding soil, tidal pressure, or freeze-thaw cycles. Because the landfill lacks a bottom liner, fluids could also migrate beneath the wall through more porous or fractured layers of sediment. Detecting such failures depends heavily on groundwater monitoring, yet monitoring wells around the site have historically been sparse and data are not consistently available to the public.

MassDEP has stated there is “no known leakage” from the landfill. That phrasing is technically accurate but also telling: it acknowledges that known leakage has not been documented, while leaving open the question of what might go undetected due to limited sampling or infrequent monitoring. In a tidal wetland environment where groundwater levels fluctuate naturally, small leaks could easily blend into background conditions without clear signs at the surface.

Today, the site remains the only waste-to-energy facility in the country that still disposes of its ash within a coastal salt marsh. From the air, its geometric berms and elevated plateau are a striking contrast to the winding creeks and pools that once filled this area.

These two images, 1938 and 2025, show how much Rumney Marsh has endured. What was once an uninterrupted tidal ecosystem is now a patchwork of landfill, infrastructure, and remaining wetland. Yet despite this transformation, the surviving marsh continues to buffer floods, filter water, and provide habitat for wildlife.

Understanding this long history, including how the landfill was built, how its containment system works, and what its limitations are, helps us see the marsh not just as a place that was lost, but as one still worth protecting and restoring.

*Sources & References*

References include publicly available state and regional documents and reporting on the Saugus waste-to-energy facility and associated landfill, such as:

Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP): Final Environmental Impact Report for Saugus Ash Landfill Modifications (2018)

https://www.mass.gov/.../documents/2018/04/09/wsi-fepmod.pdf

Massachusetts DEP Public Hearing Transcript (Nov. 30, 2017)

https://www.mass.gov/.../transcript-of-11302017.../download

The Daily Item (Lynn): Local coverage of Saugus landfill appeals and permitting (2022)

https://itemlive.com/.../saugus-board-of-health-loses.../

Conservation Law Foundation: Public commentary on landfill containment and oversight

https://www.clf.org/blog/saugus-ma-landfill-dangerous/

USGS & MassGIS Historical Aerials Database

Nearly a century apart.

Sound on! We posted a short clip before - here’s the full flight!

You’ve probably seen this view without realizing it.