Toxic chemical plants were sited beside rivers to serve tanneries.

Evidence

The leather trade supported other industries. In 1853 Robert Eaton founded a chemical factory in northern Woburn, along the banks of the Aberjona River, and supplied the tanneries with the chemicals—blue vitriol, Glauber’s salt, sulfuric acid—necessary to produce leather. At the turn of the century, Eaton’s factory was one of the largest chemical plants in the country. But the tanning industry began to wane after World War II. By the late 1960s it had been eclipsed by competition from abroad. A decade later, only the J. J. Riley Tannery in east Woburn, near the Aberjona River, still produced leather. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 27

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the book’s central groundwater-contamination case: the chain runs tannery → chemical plant → Monsanto/Grace plant on the same Aberjona banks.
• ADDENDUM: Complements ‘Grafting & Growth’ on rivers as industrial infrastructure — the Aberjona as a working corridor rather than a natural feature.