Environmental contamination remediation

U.S. EPA, Permeable Reactive Barrier Technologies for Contaminant Remediation, EPA/600/R-98/125, Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, September 1998. 

Petroleum hydrocarbons are commonly found in environmental contaminants, although they are not usually classified as hazardous waste. However, soil and groundwater contamination by petroleum hydrocarbon has spurred various analytical and site remediation developments (e.g., risk-based corrective actions). 

While there are no precise data on extent of environmental contamination in Eastern Europe, it has been estimated that the former USSR countries may contain 200,000 of these disposal sites. Western Europe, North America and other developed have made a concerted effort to identify and define their waste disposal sites, and are actively remediating them. 

From our perspective there are two ways to address these problems (1) to establish and support less stringent cleanup standards, and/or (2) to develop and implement more cost-efficient, effective remediation technologies. The scope and magnitude of the environmental contamination problems in the U.S. are such that a combination of these two options will be required. 

Borchert, S. Sick, M. (1992). The vacuum-vaporizer-well (UVB) technology for in situ groundwater remediation Brief description of technology and three case studies. In Proceedings, International Symposium on Environmental Contamination in Central and Eastern Europe, Budapest, Hungary, October 12—16, 1992. 

Such specificity is often possible with systems engineered for contaminant remediation. However, natural systems frequently involve complex mixtures of redox-active substances that cannot be characterized readily. The characterization of redox conditions in complex environmental media is a long-standing challenge to environmental scientists that continues to be an active area of research (Section 3.3). 

Phytoremediation approaches (the use of green plants and their attendant bacteria to remove contaminants from soil and water, either directly by plant uptake or by stimulating microbial activity in the rhizosphere) have attracted interest as a possible low-cost remediation technology (Sadowsky and Smith, 1996). To date the application of phytoremediation strategies to clean up environmental contamination due to 3-triazine herbicides has been limited. However, the uptake and degradation of atrazine by poplar trees has been reported (Burken and Schnoor, 1996,1997). 

The previous sections of this chapter have briefly described the nature and locations of the most serious radioactive environmental contamination on the planet and have established the geochemical foundations for understanding the behavior of radionuclides in the environment. Applications of this information to remediating or assessing the risk posed by the contamination is the subject of this section of the review. 

As mentioned previously, OH is highly reactive and is involved in nonspecific reactions with a wide range of environmental contaminants. These reactions involve moderate to moderately high second-order reaction rate constants between radical and target contaminants and represent a promising option for the remediation of hazardous pollutants. ... 

Whelan, G. Strenge, D. L. Droppo, J. G. Jr. "The Remedial Action Priority System (RAPS) Comparison Between Simulated and Observed Environmental Contaminant Levels." Superfund r88. Proc. 9th Nat. Conf.. 1988, pp 539-545. 

Topics presented indude analysis of poKutants, soil physics, and environmental fate remediation techniques health effects regulations and case studies. A special section is included on petroleum contamination in ground water and soils. 

Natural Remediation of Environmental Contaminants Its Role in Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Management Swindoll, Stahl, Ells, editors 2000... 

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