sludge

For nearly a decade, we have been witnessing all of his bad traits worsening and degrading into a tainted, bitter sludge.

Its glacial pace, often accompanied by a viscous sludge it leaves behind, make it a messy if inoffensive kind of pest.

The sludge swept through communities, destroying hundreds of people’s homes and poisoning the river.

When she was in middle school, Alaina Wood learned about an environmental disaster — a coal ash spill into the Emory River, west of Knoxville, Tenn., that released toxic sludge containing arsenic and mercury.

That oil reached the shores of several nearby fishing villages, coating beaches in black sludge.