Environmental Remediation Portal

Bioremediation

Living systems doing the work: bacteria, plants and fungi. Slowest to act, cheapest per hectare, and the only approach that leaves functioning soil behind.

Thermal remediation

Heat does in months what biology needs decades for — at high energy cost. Usually the first phase, with biology finishing the job.

Water treatment & lake restoration

Plume interception and chemical treatment for groundwater; oxygen, sediment and nutrient work for lakes.

Crisis zone: Kuwait tarcrete

Persian Gulf, ~800 km² affected. 700+ wells ignited in 1991; weathered oil hardened into a concrete-like petroleum-soil amalgam up to 50 cm deep, roughly 49 million tonnes of which remains.

Crisis zone: Niger Delta

Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States, Nigeria — 70,000 km². 7,000+ documented spills and 9–13 million barrels, forty times Exxon Valdez.

Crisis zone: Lake Baikal

Irkutsk Oblast and Buryatia, Russia — 31,722 km² of surface holding a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water, and 2,500 endemic species.

Crisis zone: Great Lakes system

USA/Canada, 244,000 km² combined — North America's industrial contamination legacy, and drinking water for 40 million people.

Crisis zone: Ganges river system

Uttarakhand to West Bengal — a 2,525 km corridor serving 500 million people.

Crisis zone: Athabasca oil sands

Northern Alberta, Canada — 142,000 km², the world's largest industrial environmental footprint.

Running a remediation programme

The pattern that repeats across every zone above.

Resources

16 tools and sources · 13 free