Application of Triple Bottom Line Sustainability Framework to Select Remediation Method at Industrial Contaminated Site

Contaminated sites are one of the major environmental problems faced by many countries across the globe. In the United States alone, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has identified several tens of thousands of contaminated sites that need remediation many of which are on the national priority list requiring urgent remedial action. The conventional approach to contaminated site remediation involves identifying the contaminants of concern and their site-specific risk-based allowable concentrations to which the contaminant concentrations at the site must be reduced by employing certain suitable remediation technologies. However, the choice of the remedial technology for the contaminated site remediation is largely driven by the potential of the technology to reduce the contaminant concentrations to the target risk-based levels, cost, time, and ease of implementation of the remediation technology at the site. This approach does not address the potential negative environmental impacts from the enormous use of energy and resources by the activities during remediation. Consequently, the broader environmental impacts such as the toxic air emissions, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and other environmental waste streams that follow from their use are unaccounted. Hence, the net environmental benefit from the site remediation always remains questionable. In recent years a more holistic approach, the green and sustainable remediation, involving the quantification of net environmental, economic, and social impacts/benefits from site remediation activities is given great importance to promote sustainability principles in remediation. This study presents an overview on the concept of green and sustainable remediation along with the framework of triple bottom line sustainability assessment of the potential remedial alternatives in contaminated site remediation. Finally, a case study is presented that involves the application of this framework to compare the overall sustainability of potential remedial alternatives for a contaminated site.