The EPA had warned the judge that no one should stray off the dirt road because of dangerously high levels of contaminants. The shoulders of the road, cluttered with barrels and building debris not so long ago, had been recently cleared. Nesson spied some newly sown grass seed and pointed it out to Schlichtmann. Someone had obviously been out to spruce up the area for the jury’s view.

Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, loc. 2209