Remediation in the United States

Remediation in Environmental Law

Any action taken to repair damage to the environment. It may be as complex as a hazardous waste site cleanup or as simple as removal of a small quantity of chemicals that have been spilled.

Remediation of hazardous waste sites is typically broken into numerous actions. The source of the problem is isolated, treated, removed, or some combination of those methods. Waste that has migrated is then addressed, including contaminated soils, surface waters, and groundwater. Examples of remedial activities are oil removal from tanker spills, removal and destruction of buried waste, soil vacuuming, incineration, and groundwater pumping and treating.

In some situations, natural resources, such as animal or plant life or wetlands, have been impacted by pollutants. Part of the remediation required in those cases has been restoration. A person who has illegally filled a wetland, for example, may have to remove the fill and revegetate the wetland.
Based on “Environment and the Law. A Dictionary”.