Remediation is the act of ‘cleaning up’ and/or containing contaminants so as to minimise their impact on human health and the environment.

Ideally it would be good not to have a contamination problem in the first place so prevention is still a primary goal of most governments and industries.

Unfortunately we already have contaminated land and water through past activities.

We also cannot prevent all chemical spills, intentional releases, natural disasters and accidents which ultimately lead to contamination.

The remediation of contaminated land and water bodies is therefore an important activity for the maintenance of a healthy society.

The process of ‘cleaning up’ contaminants can involve any of the following:

• removing the contaminated material to a safe site such as a registered landfill or tip
• treating the contamination on site to breakdown the contaminants to safer byproducts
• treating the contaminants on site to contain them so they pose little risk
• treating the contaminated material offsite at a special treatment centre to breakdown the contaminants to safer byproducts
• allowing the contaminants to naturally degrade (not always possible or practical even when the process is accelerated)
• a combination of the above.

The menu items on the left provide a brief insight into the remediation industry in Australia.