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.

A groundbreaking text and professional resource on natural attenuation technology Natural attenuation is rapidly becoming a widely used approach to manage groundwater and soil contamination by hazardous substances in petroleum-product releases and leachate from hazardous waste sites and landfills. This book provides, under one cover, the current methodologies needed by groundwater scientists and engineers in their efforts to evaluate subsurface contamination problems, to estimate risk to human health and ecosystems through mathematical models, and to design and formulate appropriate remediation strategies. Incorporating the authors' extensive backgrounds as educators, researchers, and consultants in environmental biotechnology and hydrogeology, the text emphasizes new concepts and recent advances in the science, including: Quantification of the role of microbes in natural attenuation Biodegradation and chemical transformation principles Immobilization and phase change Biotransformation mechanisms Groundwater flow and contaminant transport Analytical models for contaminant transport and reaction processes Numerical modeling of contaminant transport, transformation, and degradation Detailed descriptions of fundamental processes, characterization approaches, and analytical and numerical methods tied to relevant real-world applications make Bioremediation and Natural Attenuation: Process Fundamentals and Mathematical Models both a timely course text in hydrogeology and environmental engineering and a valuable reference for anyone in the groundwater or risk assessment professions.

The first comprehensive guide to one of today's most innovative approaches to environmental contamination Natural attenuation is gaining increasing attention as a nonintrusive, cost-effective alternative to standard remediation techniques for environmental contamination. This landmark work presents the first in-depth examination of the theory, mechanisms, and application of natural attenuation. Written by four internationally recognized leaders in this approach, the book describes both biotic and abiotic natural attenuation processes, focusing on two of the environmental contaminants most frequently encountered in groundwater--fuels and chlorinated solvents. The authors draw on a wealth of combined experience to detail successful techniques for simulating natural attenuation processes and predicting their effectiveness in the field. They also show how natural attenuation works in the real world, using numerous examples and case studies from a wide range of leading-edge projects nationwide involving fuel hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents. Finally, they discuss the evaluation and assessment of natural attenuation and explore the design of long-term monitoring programs. An indispensable reference for anyone working in environmental remediation, Natural Attenuation of Fuels and Chlorinated Solvents in the Subsurface is essential reading for scientists and engineers in a range of industries, as well as state and federal environmental regulators, and professors and graduate students in environmental or chemical engineering.

Advances in Remediation Techniques for Polluted Soils and Groundwater focuses on the thematic areas for assessment, mitigation, and management of polluted sites. This book covers advances in modelling approaches, including Machine Learning (ML)/ Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications; GIS and remote sensing; sensors; impacts of climate change on geogenic contaminants; and socio-economic impacts in the poor rural and urban areas, which are lacking in a more comprehensive manner in the previous titles. This book encompasses updated information as well as future directions for researchers working in the field of management and remediation of polluted sites. - Introduces fate and transport of multi-pollutants under varying subsurface conditions - Details underlying mechanisms of biodegradation and biodetoxification of geogenic, industrial and emerging pollutants - Presents recent advances and challenges in assessment, water quality modeling, uncertainty, and water supply management - Provides authoritative contributions on the diverse aspects of management and remediation from leading experts around the world

At hundreds of thousands of commercial, industrial, and military sites across the country, subsurface materials including groundwater are contaminated with chemical waste. The last decade has seen growing interest in using aggressive source remediation technologies to remove contaminants from the subsurface, but there is limited understanding of (1) the effectiveness of these technologies and (2) the overall effect of mass removal on groundwater quality. This report reviews the suite of technologies available for source remediation and their ability to reach a variety of cleanup goals, from meeting regulatory standards for groundwater to reducing costs. The report proposes elements of a protocol for accomplishing source remediation that should enable project managers to decide whether and how to pursue source remediation at their sites.

This text addresses the scientific and engineering aspects of subsurface contaminant transport, analysis, and modeling as well as remediation in ground water. It offers a modern engineering approach to ground water contamination problems of the nineties and beyond.