The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response has released an Primer on "Green Remediation" - which it describes as the practice of considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions.

This primer outlines the principles of green remediation and describes opportunities to reduce the footprint of cleanup activities throughout the life of a project. Best management practices (BMPs) outlined in this document help decision-makers, communities, and other stakeholders (such as project managers, field staff, and engineering contractors) identify new strategies in terms of sustainability.

These strategies complement rather than replace the process used to select primary remedies that best meet site-specific cleanup goals. The primer identifies the range of alternatives available to improve sustainability of cleanup activities and to help decision-makers balance the alternatives within existing regulatory frameworks. To date, EPA’s sustainability initiatives have addressed a broader scope or focused on individual elements of green remediation such as clean energy.

The Agency has begun examining opportunities to integrate sustainable practices into the decision-making processes and implementation strategies that carry forward to reuse strategies. In doing so, EPA recognizes that incorporation of sustainability principles can help increase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of cleanup.

Green remediation reduces the demand placed on the environment during cleanup actions, otherwise known as the "footprint" of remediation, and avoids the potential for collateral environmental damage. The potential footprint encompasses impacts long known to affect environmental media:

• Air pollution caused by toxic or priority pollutants such as particulate matter and lead,
  
  
• Water cycle imbalance within local and regional hydrologic regimes,
  
  
• Soil erosion and nutrient depletion as well as subsurface geochemical changes,
  
  
• Ecological diversity and population reductions, and
  
  
• Emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and other greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.

The Primer notes that opportunities to increase sustainability exist throughout the investigation, design, construction, operation, and monitoring phases of site remediation regardless of the selected cleanup remedy.

As cleanup technologies continue to advance and incentives evolve, green remediation strategies offer significant potential for increasing the net benefit of cleanup, saving project costs, and expanding the universe of long-term property use or reuse options without compromising cleanup goals.

Green Remediation: The practice of considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions.

The primer strives to cross educate remediation and reuse decision-makers and other stakeholders about green remediation using a "whole-site" approach that reflects reuse goals. Greater awareness of the opportunities helps remediation decision-makers address the role of cleanup in community revitalization, and helps revitalization project managers maintain an active voice during all stages of remediation decision-making.

The Primer is an easy to read document that provides tools for daily operations and introductory information on the use of renewable energy resources. Profiles of site-specific implementation of green remediation strategies are provided throughout the document to help federal and state agencies, local communities, and other stakeholders learn from collective experiences and successes.

As new information becomes available, additional profiles will be available online on EPA’s Green Remediation web site. The document also describes the rapidly expanding selection of incentives for strategy implementation and provides a list of additional resources in addition to direct references.

Published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, April 2008, the Primer available for download at: http://www.clu-in.org/techdrct/techpubs.asp

Source: Environmental Protection Agency - US
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