An environmentalist's perspective on alternatives to pump and treat for ground water remediation

Pump and treat is far-and-away the most prevalent technique to remediate contaminated ground water. There is, however, a growing awareness of the limitations of this remediation method to achieve either background or health-based water quality standards, particularly for petroleum hydrocarbon constituents. Given these limitations, this paper explores advantages and disadvantages of some remediation alternatives from an environmentalist's perspective. They are: Do it anyway; Quit; Use supplementary remediation technology; Set alternative concentration standards; and Transfer resources to pollution prevention