Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 15
Methods of Soil Environmental Remediation
15.1. Introduction
Important and fast progress in research and development has allowed the
development of many decontamination techniques for contaminated soils. These
techniques are different according to whether they aim to immobilize, eliminate or
remobilize contaminants in the soil. Indeed, the two current principal methods of
environmental remediation are:
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methods of civil engineering
: employing techniques from conventional
geotechnics to contain or, in the best case to remove by excavation, the source of
contamination and to “asphyxiate” the channels used for in migration of the
pollutants;
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methods based on processes
(“process-based methods”): physical, chemical
and biological processes are used to remove, destroy or modify the contaminants.
The civil engineering methods are simple because they are based on the
hydraulic properties of the ground, particularly soil permeabilities and holding
capacities, which makes them very convenient to use. However, their inabilities to
solve all problems arising, particularly the pollution of ground water, mean that we
must have recourse to the methods based on processes, which are much more
complex.
