The environmental situation is bad enough as it is, and the lack of clear cut standards on environmental remediation isn’t helping any. If you don’t know, environmental remediation is the removal of contaminants or pollution from the environment and its media such as surface water, sediment, groundwater and soil. This is being done for the general protection of the Earth’s environment and human health. Thing is some countries have yet to implement a set of standards for the practice. A few industrialized nations-United States, Canada, European countries-have set standards, though regulation between individual provincial governments is still an issue.

Environmental remediation goes through a strict process of identification and site assessment before it can proceed with anything. It is not a simple process by any means.

For example, if an area is suspected of chemical contamination, you don’t just call in a team of scientists to “remediate” the area. First there is a need to assess the contamination. The Phase I Environment Site Assessment is the most common report used to identify an area’s contamination. Other information also help during the assessment, such as historical use of the area and what materials were produced and used on the site-all these help in analyzing what type of sampling can be used to assess a site’s contamination.

Why is all this information important? Consider contaminated waste being used in the fill to level a car park. You could also throw in the possibility of off-site contamination due to years of emissions to air, groundwater and soil. Knowing all these is very important since:

1. Nobody wants to shell out their own money just to clean up a site
2. Contamination of nearby properties must be indicated on their property titles and it will affect their market value
3. Again nobody wants to spend their own money just to pay for the cost of assessment

It should be noted that some corporations choose to do the right thing and volunteer to test their sites for contamination. These efforts are protected by the Freedom of Information Acts from reports to environmental agencies.

Examples of remediation technologies include dredging or excavation, SEAR (surfactant enhanced aquifer remediation), pump and treat, solidification and stabilization, in situ oxidation, and soil vapor extraction.

What happens when a contaminated site is left out in the open for too long? It poses an incremental health risk to human beings, which is proven to be fatal especially in the long term. Depending on the level of contamination, remediators often compare the health risks to the death ratio of tobacco smoking and car accidents. Some communities even report an increase in cancer rates in contaminated areas. No doubt environmental remediation needs to be addressed by the world’s governments before it’s too late especially in heavily populated and highly industrialized areas.

Site contamination is no laughing matter, especially when human health is what’s at stake. Development has done a lot of damage to the environment; it’s about time we make environmental remediation a household term and do something to bring the planet back to what it once was.

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Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: remediation equipment rentals, site assessment