The Ultimate Guide to Environmental Remediation Projects

Despite people’s best efforts to maintain eco-friendly practices, pollutants and contaminants sometimes leak into the environment. These leaks can damage soil, sediment, and water, hurting the environment and anything that lives there, from plant life to animals to humans. When this happens, someone must remove the pollutants and contaminants from the environment to prevent further damage from occurring; this removal process is called environmental remediation. If you want to get involved with one of these projects, consider this ultimate guide for doing so.

Project Framework

While environmental remediation is best known as the removal process of pollutants and contaminants from the environment, this term refers to much more than just the removal process. There are many steps to a cleanup project, with some taking place before and some happening after the cleaning process itself.

Site Discovery

The first step may not feel like a step at all since it’s the site discovery. Most pollutants or contaminants are accidentally or illegally dumped, so they’re not immediately reported for cleanup. That means someone must first discover the dump site and recognize the problems the affected area is facing.

Evaluation, Proposal, and Selection

Once people know about the site, professionals must evaluate it and create a potential response plan. These professionals will consider the location of the site, which pollutant or contaminant entered the site, the living things around the site, and more. After the evaluation, they will craft a response action proposal explaining how to clean up the area with these and other factors in mind. If the people in charge of the site consult with multiple professionals or request multiple proposals, they must then select which proposal they think is best.

Plan Implementation

After the authorities of the site select a response action proposal, it’s time to get to work. Implementing the plan can involve hiring a hazardous waste management company, liaising with government officials, and bringing in wildlife experts. Whatever the plan calls for, the authorities and hired help execute the necessary steps to clean up the affected area.

Completion and Recovery

Depending on how the dump site is affected by the pollutant or contaminant, the area may need a long-term response action plan, not just a short-term cleanup. Authorities and professionals will evaluate this need as well as long-term action plan proposals if they deem a long-term response necessary. Hopefully, even this long-term response is successfully completed, and the area fully recovers.

Types of Projects

The project framework above outlines any type of environmental remediation project. There are different types of projects, based on whether the pollutants or contaminants affect the soil, sediment, or water in a specific area.

Excavation

The plan implementation for remediating affected soil is excavation. This means that a hazardous waste management company or similar professionals will dig up all the affected soil in the area, appropriately store it, and remove it to another location for safe disposal.

Thermal Desorption

If excavation doesn’t successfully remove all the pollution or contamination from the affected soil, professionals may use thermal desorption. Thermal desorption is a heat technology that increases the volatility of the pollutant or contaminant so it turns into a vapor. This allows the professionals in the area to collect or destroy the vapor accordingly, leaving the once-affected soil in place.

Dredging

When a pollutant or contaminant affects the soil in a body of water, also known as sediment, there are other plan implementation options. The most popular option is dredging. Professionals excavate the sediment, often using a pump or suction system, and safely dispose of it elsewhere.

Pump and Filter

If the pollutant or contaminant affects groundwater, or water held underground in a particular area, professionals will pump it out of the soil. Once that water is out of the soil, they can filter the pollutant or contaminant out of the water.

Project Examples

Pollutants, contaminants, soil, sediment, and water all sound more like concepts than real projects. While we know these words mean real things in our world, imagining what they mean and seeing the effects of these components are very different. Our professional cleanup crews at Clean Management Environmental Group have helped with real environmental remediation efforts and can provide more concrete examples so you can understand these projects better.

What happens when an oil truck spills on a highway? Most people think first about the traffic jams these incidents cause, but these events also necessitate environmental remediation. Professionals go to the site of the spill, evaluate what requires cleaning, propose how to best clean the area and protect the surrounding environment, and complete that cleaning plan.

What happens when a landfill seeps into the surrounding soil and groundwater? Most people want to stay far away from landfills, which means they feel safe even if something seeps into the environment. The biggest question on their minds is whether the area will smell worse. However, professionals can’t just leave landfills alone to stink and hurt the environment. They evaluate what’s causing the seepage and propose a way to clean the area. Since it’s difficult to move a landfill, they also have to decide which long-term changes need to take place to prevent seepage in the future.

Environmental Remediation Experts

As we mentioned above, Clean Management Environmental Group has experienced cleanup crews ready to help with various environmental remediation projects. We can assist with soil, sediment, and water contamination; we can also help with other kinds of projects, such as pipeline incidents, hazardous waste emergencies, and meth lab response and disposal. While it may sound difficult to maintain an expert understanding of so many different projects, we have put in the work to do so. We are committed to service, speed, safety, and government compliance so you can trust us to get the job done right.

In addition to this ultimate guide to environmental remediation projects, our company is proud to offer environmental waste services, including environmental remediation. When you contact Clean Management Environmental Group, you know you’re in good hands, no matter what you need help with.