Remediation of Petroleum-contaminated Soils

Book excerpt: This synthesis will be of interest to state transportation personnel involved with project planning and location (administrative and regulatory personnel), design staff (general civil, geotechnical, and environmental engineers), and project managers (construction and maintenance engineers and staff). It will also be of interest to federal and state environmental agencies and to environmental consultants and contractors as well as to trainers in the field of petroleum-contaminated soil remediation. This synthesis describes the remedial technologies that may be available to transportation agencies faced with the regulatory responsibility to clean or remediate petroleum-contaminated soils in the vadose zone (unsaturated soils above the groundwater table) at a particular site as well as the state of the practice within the agencies. This report of the Transportation Research Board describes the applicability and cost-effectiveness of alternate technologies to remediate petroleum-contaminated soil. Practices currently being used by state transportation agencies to remediate petroleum-contaminated soils, both on site and off site are also described. This summary of transportation agency practice complements the limited telephone survey of soil remediation techniques that was performed in preparing NCHRP Report 351, Hazardous Wastes in Highway Rights-of-Way.