Buried (The Toxic Truth About Our Soil and Groundwater)

How the environmental disaster underground is taking place in our own backyards—and how we can fix it.

From an award-winning science writer, geologist, and researcher.

As everyday life goes on, fallout from what seem like distant crises—the floods, the wildfires, the toxic spills—is poisoning the soil and water underneath neighborhoods and farms and cities at home and around the world. This is the urgent message delivered in Buried, a book that is deeply informed, deeply personal, harrowing, but never without hope. Geologist, field researcher, and outdoor guru Ruby McConnell pursues the larger story of widespread hidden contamination through the experience of the places she knows best, in Oregon.

Drawing on her years working directly on cleanup sites, the author takes readers into the underground world where leaking infrastructure, toxic industrial sites, and abandoned facilities spread chemicals through soils and aquifers everywhere. These contaminants, in turn, are linked to unsafe drinking water, failing crops, cancer clusters, biodiversity decline, and deepening environmental injustice.

McConnell’s real-world experience and vivid storytelling bring this buried, ongoing disaster to the surface in a powerful, accessible way. As PFAS contamination, fracking byproducts, and dwindling clean-water reserves force public awareness, her book offers clarity and urgency, along with pathways toward realistic solutions. Part investigation, part narrative journey, and part call to action, Buried shows why understanding what lies beneath our feet is essential to building a healthier and more resilient future on a global scale.