Public and Private Initiatives to Develop Ground Water Remediation Technologies in the U.S

Abstract

Ground water at most hazardous waste sites in the U.S. is contaminated, and is most often the limiting factor for complete site remediation. Until recently, contaminants in surface soils were viewed as the only significant source of ground-water contamination. Consequently, development of remediation technologies focused mainly on contaminated soils, while ground-water remediation was limited to containment by pump and treat technologies. The development of in situ technologies for ground water was largely ignored. In situ technologies to directly remediate contaminated ground water are still not well developed, primarily because site characterization is complex, expensive and inexact and contaminant plumes are often difficult to define.