Nearly a quarter million sites in the U.S.--most of them industrial property--face contamination from hazardous waste and petroleum products, says the EPA. Theyre all identified in a new report, Cleaning Up the Nations Waste Sites: Markets & Technology Trends issued by EPAs Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response. The document pegs the ultimate cleanup cost at about $187 million or higher, and says it will take "several decades of planned investment from federal, state, and local government agencies and private industries" to perform the task. The report, says the EPA, will enable technology vendors, developers, government officials, and others to assess the demand for cleanup services and identify business opportunities.
The report covers all major hazardous-waste cleanup programs in the U.S., including Superfund, underground storage tanks, U.S. departments of Defense and Energy, the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, and various state programs. Copies are available at $44 each from the National Technical Information Service at 1-800-553-NTIS (6847).
