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Our world is full of pollution. This pollution can come from leaks, spills, and poor waste disposal. This can affect our health and the environment. When reading about environmental devastation, it is easy to feel disheartened. Luckily, there is a way to get rid of the pollution: environmental remediation. Remediation can break down and remove these pollutants to clean the soil and water. Here are four environmental remediation success stories that everyone should know about.
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1) Los Alamos, New Mexico
In New Mexico, there was a steep canyon slope containing soil and rock polluted with mercy that was virtually inaccessible, except through the parking lot of a busy shopping center. The remediation project was a collaboration between the New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office. The field workers used specialized equipment to reach the virtually inaccessible worksite and managed to finish the clean up project three weeks ahead of schedule, according to phys.org.
2) Amber, Pennsylvania
In the 1970s, an oil pipeline broke and spilled over three thousand barrels of gasoline into a nearby aquifer. Gas was siphoned off and recovered from the aquifer, but there were still a thousand barrels of gas polluting the aquifer that could best be resolved through environmental remediation. Gas-utilizing microbes were released into the aquifer. The environment was controlled to ensure they thrived. Over the next two years, these microbes degraded between 744 to 944 barrels of gasoline. The project was considered a success when the level of gasoline pollution dropped below governmental requirements.
3) Sudbury, Ontario
One of the most successful environmental remediation stories is from the city of Sudbury. Surrounded by nickel mines and smelters, the city used to be a site of environmental devastation with dead land and acidified lakes. Forty years of hard work and environmental remediation breathed new life into the wasteland. Sudbury’s regreening program started with using limestone to neutralize the acid in the soil before planting grass and tree seedlings. There is still a lot of work to do, but through environmental remediation, Sudbury’s ecosystem is slowly being restored.
4) Hartford, Connecticut
In 1990, the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company ceased operations in Hartford, Connecticut. In its wake, it left an empty 17-acre facility contaminated with petroleum and heavy metals, including lead. In 1997, an environmental remediation project was started to clean up the site. It was funded through Brownfields grants. The cleanup was successful and now the property is home to apartment buildings, a power plant, and commercial space.
Not only does environmental remediation help restore the environment to make the world safer for plants and animals, but it also improves things for humans. It can clean water in an aquifer, or turn an unproductive, dangerous piece of property into a thriving place of economic growth and homes for hundreds of people. These four examples of successful environmental remediation show how the process of removing and degrading pollutants can help the Earth heal itself for a brighter, healthier future tomorrow.
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