Natural attenuation has become an effective and low-cost alternative to more expensive engineered remediation. This new edition updates the principles and fundamentals of natural attenuation of contaminants with a broader view of the field. It includes new methods for evaluating natural attenuation mechanisms and microbial activity at the lab and field scales. Case studies, actual treatments and protocols, theoretical processes, case studies, numerical models, and legal aspects in the natural attenuation of organic and inorganic contaminants are examined. Challenges and future directions for the implementation of natural attenuation and enhanced remediation techniques are also considered.

Previously published: Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers, c2004 under the title Natural attenuation of contaminants in soil.

Natural attenuation has become widely recognized as an effective and low-cost alternative to more expensive engineered remediation. However, there are uncertainties about natural attenuation√s long-term effects and risks to the environment. There is a particular need to develop a high level of understanding of the natural attenuation proces

In the past decade, officials responsible for clean-up of contaminated groundwater have increasingly turned to natural attenuation-essentially allowing naturally occurring processes to reduce the toxic potential of contaminants-versus engineered solutions. This saves both money and headaches. To the people in surrounding communities, though, it can appear that clean-up officials are simply walking away from contaminated sites. When is natural attenuation the appropriate approach to a clean-up? This book presents the consensus of a diverse committee, informed by the views of researchers, regulators, and community activists. The committee reviews the likely effectiveness of natural attenuation with different classes of contaminants-and describes how to evaluate the "footprints" of natural attenuation at a site to determine whether natural processes will provide adequate clean-up. Included are recommendations for regulatory change. The committee emphasizes the importance of the public's belief and attitudes toward remediation and provides guidance on involving community stakeholders throughout the clean-up process. The book explores how contamination occurs, explaining concepts and terms, and includes case studies from the Hanford nuclear site, military bases, as well as other sites. It provides historical background and important data on clean-up processes and goes on to offer critical reviews of 14 published protocols for evaluating natural attenuation.

V.3 ... consists of individual chapters that describe 1) the conceptual background for radionuclides, including tritium, radon, strontium, technetium, uranium, iodine, radium, thorium, cesium, plutonium-americium and 2) data requirements to be met during site characterization.

Soil and Water Contamination, Second Edition gives a structured overview of transport and fate processes of environmental contaminants. Dealing with all topics essential for understanding and predicting contaminant patterns in soil, groundwater and surface water, it contributes to the formation of a solid basis for adequate soil and water pollution control and integrated catchment management. A unique feature of this work is that it does not treat water and soil pollution as independent processes, but as components of an integrated whole. The core of this geoscientific approach is divided into four parts: • Introduction to the basics of soil and water contamination, such as the fundamentals of environmental pollution and chemistry and the basic properties of soil, groundwater and surface water. • Source, role, and behaviour of substances in soil and water, treating natural and anthropogenic sources of nutrients, heavy metals, radionuclides and organic pollutants as well as emerging substances of concern, their physico-chemical characteristics, behaviour, and toxicity. • Transport and fate of substances in soil and water, focusing on processes of transport, exchange and transformations like advection, dispersion, adsorption kinetics and biochemical decay. Special attention is paid to the mathematical description and modelling of these processes. • Patterns of substances in soil and water, explaining spatial and temporal patterns of pollutants in soil, groundwater, and surface water, illustrated by recent case studies from fundamental and applied research. This comprehensive, successful textbook, now in its second edition, has been conscientiously updated and extended and includes many case studies, examples and exercises sections, providing undergraduate and graduate students in the Earth and Environmental Sciences with all the material necessary for the study of soil and water contamination. In addition, it can serve as a useful source of information for professionals.