ENVIRONMENTAL-REGULATIONS - A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THEIR APPLICATIONS TOBIOREMEDIATION

There are at least 10,000 potential Superfund sites in the United Stat es, of which 1200 have been identified for clean-up. In situ bioremedi ation is perhaps the simplest method for the clean-up of large contami nated sites. Current research in bioremediation has demonstrated over a 96% remediation efficiency for soils containing polycyclic hydrocarb ons, light petroleum oils, and other organic contaminants. Although th e lab-scale testing has been promising, the use of bioremediation on a full scale site has been hindered by environmental regulations. Over the past several years the Environmental Protection Agency has made gr eat strides in overcoming some of the regulatory obstacles. The primar y legislative acts of concern are the Resource Conservation and Recove ry Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Lia bility Act, the Toxic Substance Control Act and the Federal Plant Pest Act. This paper will briefly discuss the impact on bioremediation of the key provisions of these acts. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Else vier Science Limited