Remediation and Management of Contaminated Soil - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 435

continuous monitoring. Natural attenuation and biosparging would have less impact on the
local community, whereas activated carbon and air stripping have more impact on the com-
munity due to potential accidents, truck trafic, and excavation of wells. Furthermore, there
is no limitation in terms of remediation time. Natural attenuation and biosparging appear
to be best options among the selected options for remediation of the contaminated aquifer.
Meanwhile, if the contaminated aquifer is the only drinking water supply for the society,
other remediation options such as activated carbon or air stripping should be considered.
The required costs for site remediation are higher than bioremediation options due to the
urgency for an acceptable source of drinking water. The overall comparison can be shown
in Table 11.5 and Figure 11.15. It is not surprising that natural attenuation is the most sus-
tainable and balanced approach in terms of percentage (%) for environment, society, and
economics due to the low impact on the site and costs. However, the duration of the reme-
diation, which is approximately 20 years, would be a major issue if the site is needed in the

TABLE 11.5
Comparison of the Sustainability of Remediation Technologies for a Benzene-Contaminated Site

Environment
(%)

Society
(%)

Economics
(%)

Lifetime
(years)

Cost
($ millions) Alternative

Biosparging/SVE 74 67 63 2 4.5

MNA 87 67 76 20 3.2

Pump and treat with air stripping 48 64 74 5 3.5

Pump and treat with activated carbon 53 74 68 2 4.5

Biosparging Natural attenuation

Environment Environment

Economics Society Economics Society

Pump and treat
with air stripping

Pump and treat
with activated carbon

Environment Environment

Economics Society Economics Society

FIGURE 11.15
Comparison of various options using the GoldSET sustainability tool. (Adapted from Mulligan, C.N. et al.,
Sustainable remediation of contaminated sites, Coupled Phenomena in Environmental Geotechnics CPEG , Torino,
Italy, July 1-3, 2013.)