Landfills are filled with trash that has high concentrations of chemicals. This trash is carried from houses to dumpsites then moved again to landfills. Carrying this trash from house to dumpsite then to landfills widens the chance of chemical leakage into fresh water. With that, landfills hold a variety of trash: computers, toys, wood, rubber, and a number of other garbage items. All of these examples hold a dreadful amount and variety of chemicals. Martin explains that chemicals break down the liners put down before the trash and seep into local freshwater (Martin par. 1). The chemicals are so awful that they could potentially kill an individual if the individual would consume this toxic water. These chemicals are harsh enough that toxic plants cannot remove the chemicals from water or any other substance that has landfill chemicals in it. Having these landfills is causing problems with the earth and the living species on it. Brenda Lerner and K. Lee Lerner in the article “Landfills” concede that landfills have to be a specific distance away from surface water to lessen the chance of contamination (Lerner and Lerner par. 15). Locating landfills father away from water sources does not promise that freshwater surfaces are going to be safe, but this promises that a farther distance will decrease the amount of chemicals let into the earth’s fresh water. If America starts increasing the amount of landfills, the amount of fresh water available to Americans will decrease. This puts the lives of many humans at risk. Scientists understand that the chemical part of landfills is the most puzzling problem, but scientists have thought of a new solution called liners. With landfills holding toxic chemicals, scientists have the idea of putting down liners to minimize the chemical pollution. Lerner and Lerner state, “A liner is intended to prevent contamination of groundwater, keep the interior of the landfill dry, and restrict air from passing from the ground into the land-keeping the garbage dry...” (Lerner and Lerner par. 20). In other words, Lerner and Lerner believe that these liners will be able to prevent contamination from seeping into fresh water and save animals and plants from dying. Liners are a great idea to reduce the amount of chemicals from escaping. Liners could potentially save f species that could have ended up dying rapidly without them. Brown explains that on top of having a liner, they are starting to put machines in landfills that work like a vacuum and suck out the bad leachate (Brown par. 7). Brown emphasizes that these vacuum-like machines can potentially stop chemical waste from going into fresh water. These vacuums do not get every chemical particle. As the earth moves, the liner moves with it, causing small cracks that allow chemical particles to make their way through without being sucked up by the vacuum-like machines. There still needs to be a more foolproof plan that allows no chemicals to escape because, right now, America needs to think of a more suitable solution than landfills. Landfills not only have a hard time with contaminating fresh water, but also toxifying the air.