Ed Russo didnât become an environmental activist until a landfill in New Jersey blew up almost in his back yard in 1979. He was living in that state at the time and had been elected president of Chester Township, a sleepy area in northern New Jersey with a sleepy little regional landfill that, as Russo put it, âeverybody said was fine.â That changed in January 1979 when an explosion, caused in part by illegal dumping of 55-gallon drums of acetone into the landfill, caused a mushroom-shaped cloud to rise over the mound. âI didnât know how to spell âlandfillâ before that. I was just a local elected official,â Russo remembers. âAny of the answers I got made no sense.â