What is Sustainable Remediation?
The goal of remediation is to protect human health and the environment by reducing or eliminating the risks and deleterious impacts of chemical contamination through mitigation measures. In the past, most remediation systems were implemented without consideration of sustainable practices, and without considering their potential for transferring impacts to other media. “Sustainability” is the balancing of economic growth, protection of the environment, and social responsibility, toward achievement of an improved quality of life for ourselves and future generations.1 When applied to disposal site remediation, sustainable practices consider factors during the remedy selection phase that improve the overall environmental performance of a remedy. Sustainable Remediation maximizes the net environmental, societal and economic benefits of a cleanup.
