Toxic Waste

Toxic waste is a pollutant comprised of chemical material found throughout the wastelands.

Background
Before the war, hazardous materials were created as byproducts of research and industry. Companies chose to dispose of such waste in a variety of ways, from storage in containment barrels, burying, concealing within caves, or dumping into waterways. Due to the impact of disposal methods on the environment, regulatory measures were put in place and simultaneously circumvented by the companies under scrutiny, such as with the Red Rocket truck stop. Hazardous material inspectors checked locations unannounced such as the operations at the Mass Fusion containment shed, a company with the motto "the leader in the safe handling and disposal of radioactive waste," where toxic waste was being illegal dumped into Lake Quannapowitt.

The need for secure waste storage resulted in the Department of Energy's 10,000 Years Initiative mitigation program, with the aim of providing secure locations to dispose of waste products while also conveying to future inhabitants the dangers the waste posed to life. The Emmett Mountain disposal site mentions struggles with how much toxic waste was incoming, lacking space, staff issues, and lack of resources to safely and adequately handle the waste. Waste was dumped in other parts of the country as well, such as in the deserts of Nevada and in Massachusetts.

Characteristics
Some instances of waste exist in the environment, collecting in pools or bodies of water, while others are unearthed having been previously buried, or stored within barrels that have decayed to the point of spilling into the surrounding area. Some variations of toxic waste are green or yellow in color. Waste can cause harmful or fatal genetic modifications. Creatures also experience mutations as a result of exposure to toxic waste. The golden geckos near Klamath consume toxic waste leaking from barrels in nearby caves.

Locations

 * Scout Leader Pompy at Kiddie Corner Cabins requests help in finding, cleaning up and storing several toxic mutagenic waste spills around Appalachia. Possible spills are located in Grafton, at Hemlock Holes, in the toxic dried lakebed and within the Willard Corporate Housing complex. Other locations are seen around the old nuclear test site, toxic dump site and within Federal Disposal Field HZ-21.
 * Toxic waste can be found freely flowing in the ruins of Los Angeles, acting as an impassable moat for the Gun Runners fortress. Toxic caves, containing leaking barrels of waste, northwest of Klamath Falls, Oregon. There are instances of toxic waste at the toxic waste dump, at Powder Ganger camp west, around the toxic pond and wreckage, within Vault 34 and in Swan's Pond. Several pools of toxic waste are found throughout the exterior areas of Big MT.
 * Significant evidence of toxic waste dumping can be seen throughout Black Mountain, the Devil's Throat and Dunwich Borers. Several NW Disposal Systems trucks with such waste were on the way to San Onofre when they were diverted to Cottonwood overlook and Searchlight fire station. Those same waste barrels were utilized by Caesar's Legion to destroy the New California Republic base at Camp Searchlight.