WASTE REMEDIATION SITES

The hazardous waste remediation industry has undergone a difficult growing process since its inception in the late-1970's and early 1980's. During this time, the regulatory drivers that forced cleanups of hazardous waste sites created a slow and expensive process. Typically, it took several years at a minimum to move from discovery of contamination to actually cleaning up the site. In addition, remediation projects proved difficult to manage due to the uncertain nature of the contamination and the methods to clean it up. Now that regulatory agencies, clients, and contractors have over fifteen years of experience in managing projects, methods are emerging that attempt to save time and money in the overall site cleanup. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is becoming more flexible in allowing alternative methods to be used in cleanups, and contractors are becoming more aware of the fundamental differences between hazardous waste projects and the more traditional construction projects. This thesis first analyzes the problems in the remediation industry in the 1980's. Second, it looks at the project level to determine what aspects of remediation projects presen