Brian Chew opines that looking back over the last three decades of remediation projects, he has noticed a very interesting trend. Despite advances in technology and equipment, a good majority of the techniques we were using in the early 1980s are still in use today, only with less disruption to the property.
One big difference between then and now is that in many cases the cost to remediate a contaminated site was much higher in the 1980s than it is today. Obviously, some of the cost differential has to do with competition and funding sources as back in the early 80s, he remembers both North Carolina and South Carolina having only a partial page listing under Environmental Consultants in the Yellow Pages. What are the Yellow Pages you ask?
These days, most U.S. states have Trust Funds which are funded by underground storage tank (UST) fees and taxes paid at the gas pump. In addition, some states even have special Trust Funds for dry cleaners. While most industrial sites are still funded by either the responsible party (RP)... if one can be found .... or by insurance, in the 80s most of this work was paid for entirely by RPs or insurance. Interestingly, the few States that still operate without Trust Funds have the fewest sites left to be remediated. In my experience, Trust Funds collected for a specific purpose and managed by government agencies are a recipe for disaster.
Below, are listed the technologies he is referring to and what they have morphed into in the last three decades. Although I am using a typical UST site as an example, the same holds true for industrial and Superfund sites as well. The example site has free product present and soil and groundwater impact.
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