EPA's assessment of European contaminated soil treatment techniques

Abstract

Site remediation is a pressing issue in European countries due to limited availability of land. Therefore, much progress is being made in the development of effective technologies for remediating contaminated sites. The purpose of the program described in this paper was to investigate the most successful and innovative European technologies for potential introduction into U.S. markets. Phase I of this EPA–sponsored project was a 9‐month research effort which identified 95 innovative technologies in use or being researched in foreign countries. During Phase II, the most promising technologies identified in Phase I were studied in–depth through personal interviews with the engineers who research and apply these technologies, and through tours of laboratory models and full–scale installations. Phase III of the assessment effort culminated in the first forum on innovative domestic and international hazardous waste treatment technologies on June 19–21, 1989, in Atlanta, Georgia. The most successful full–scale technologies investigated were developed in the Netherlands and West Germany. These technologies include vacuum extraction of hydrocarbons from soil, in situ washing of cadmium‐polluted soil, in situ steam stripping, and a number of landfarming and soil washing operations. The paper provides description of 11 soil remediation techniques that have shown such promise in laboratory studies or in practice to warrant consideration of their use in the United States, and summary information on the international technologies selected for presentation at the Phase III forum as they relate to soils remediation.

Methods and techniques for the selective extraction and recovery of oxoanions

“…A similar in situ application of soil washing uses an acid solution to leach metals from more than 30000 cubic meters of soil. 38…”

Effect of Soil Washing on Petroleum-Hydrocarbon Distribution on Sand Surfaces

“…Soil washing and flushing have been proposed as possible remediation technologies for soils contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons and other hydrophobic organic chemicals (Nash, 1987;Nash and Traver, 1988;Nunno et al, 1988;Esposito et al, 1989;Pheiffer, 1990). The effectiveness of soil washing and flushing processes was recently summarized in a critical review of physical/ chemical treatment technologies for organically contaminated soils and sediments (Fox, 1996).…”