Green Remediation

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Green Remediation
Energy
Air
Water
Land Ecosystems
Materials Waste
Reducing theenvironmental footprint of
contaminated site cleanups
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What is Green Remediation?
The practice of considering all environmental
effects of remedy implementation and
incorporating options to minimize the
environmental footprints of cleanup actions
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Core Elements of Green Remediation
Reduction, Efficiency, and Renewables
Minimize, Reuse, and Recycle
Protect Air Quality Reduce Greenhouse Gases
Conserve, Protect, and Restore
Improve Quality Decrease Quantity of Use
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Energy

• Renewable energy systems in remote locations or
  to offset grid electricity
• Optimized and effective treatment systems
• Energy efficient equipment operating at peak
  performance

10-kW turbine for ground water circulation,
reducing grid electricity consumption by 26 at
former Nebraska ordnance plant
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Air

• Use of cleaner fuel and retrofit diesel engines
• Lower air emissions leading to reductions in
  harmful particulate matter and ground-level ozone
  precursors
• Modified operations to reduce operating and idle
  time

Diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate
filters, selective catalytic reduction, and
ultra-low sulfur diesel are options for reducing
emissions from onsite equipment
Construction could account for 30-40 of fuel
consumption and air emissions of a cleanup
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Water

• Minimum fresh water use and maximum reuse
• Prevention of water quality impacts, e.g.,
  nutrient-loading or disruption of natural
  hydraulics
• Reclaimed treated or stormwater for beneficial
  use or storage
• Alignment with proposed EPA rule on construction
  effluent
• Specific BMPs at all construction sites
• Sediment basins at sites gt 10 acres
• Numeric limits of turbidity at sites gt 30 acres
  with high rainfall and clay content

Rock-filled stormwater channels and erosion
control blankets used for excavation and
backfilling at former U.S. Navy landfill
Portable closed-loop wheel washing systems for
reducing onsite and offsite trackout during
construction
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Land Ecosystems

• Minimal habitat disturbance such as noise and
  lighting
• Soil and sediment protection from compaction,
  decontamination, or uncontrolled traffic
• Use of local byproducts such as fly ash or
  agricultural waste
• Ecosystem restoration and protection practices
  such as selecting native plant species

Ten years after applying municipal biosolids and
assorted nutrients along the Arkansas River
Metal salt crust along Upper Arkansas River in
Colorado prior to Superfund removal
I promise Ill walk and feed him alligator
rescues during removal actions at contaminated
swampland in Georgia
and relocating affected animals
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Materials Waste

• Site cleanups often require demolition work, use
  raw materials and generate waste
• Reuse and recycling of materials, including CD
  debris and clean metal
• Reduction of secondary wastes such as soil
  corings, wastewater, expended chemicals, routine
  supplies, and single-use materials
• Passive sampling devices producing minimal waste
• Minimized extraction and disposal of natural
  resources

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OSWER Green Remediation Strategy
Major efforts in U.S. EPA/OSWER to advanceGreen
Remediation Best Practices across cleanup
programs

• Principles for Greener Cleanups
• Common policy position for all U.S. EPA cleanup
  programs
• Superfund Green Remediation Strategy
• Operationalizing the Principles in the
  Superfund Cleanup Program
• Voluntary Green Cleanup Standards Certification
  System
• A robust tool for fostering greener cleanups in
  the various cleanup programs
• RE-Powering Americas Land
• Renewable energy on contaminated lands

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Who Can BTSC Help?

• Direct Technical Assistance
• State and local governments
• Tribes
• Brownfields Grantees
• EPA Regional Coordinators
• EPA Remedial Project Managers
• EPA On-Scene Coordinators
• Other EPA Regional staff

• Information Support
• Real estate professionals
• Developers and financial institutions
• Other private redevelopment interests
• Consultants, engineers and remediators
• Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs)
• Affected Communities
• General public

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Direct Technical Assistance Services

• Project Strategy Consultation
• Including use of the Triad Approach, Exit
  Strategies
• Project document reviews
• RFPs, work plans, field sampling plans, and QAPPs
• Evaluating renewable energy potential,
  technologies, financing, and partnerships
• Assessing potential applications and designs for
  waste-to-energy systems
• Integration of site reuse into remediation
  strategies
• Facilitating consideration and use of green
  remediation
• Remedial design review
• Green Remediation reviews
• Training Live / Webcast / Archived

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Self-Help Information Assistance

• EPAs Green Remediation Toolbox
• Supporting Guidance and Technical Information
• Profiles and Case Studies of Effective
  Remediation
• Additional resources for federal, state, industry
  and advisory groups
• Site-specific technical support to EPA Superfund
  RPMs

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Green Remediation Summary

• Evaluates core elements of a cleanup project more
  closely
• Compares site-specific value of conservation
  benefits gained by different strategies for
  implementing green remediation
• Weighs environmental trade-offs of potential
  strategies

Contact Carlos PachonOffice of Superfund
Remediation and Technology Innovationpachon.carlo
s_at_epa.gov