The system produces no negative environmental by products, no excess heat (there is no thermal process involved), and no hazardous materials or toxic sludge to haul away from the treatment site. The reagent solutions we use do not pose any threat to the environment; they are totally biodegradable. The engine operating the equipment produces no more noise or exhaust gases than would a moderate-sized gasoline generator.
Health and Safety: There are no significant, negative health, safety, or environmental impacts associated with operation of our system. There are no significant risks, direct or indirect, to the general public as long as the equipment and work site are reasonably secure from unauthorized entrance. Specifically:
Chemical hazard: The chemical and biological products used are biodegradable and environmentally benign. Equipment operators are trained to handle these materials with due care, with the most likely risk if any being direct exposure to themselves before the products are sufficiently diluted. There is no risk to the general public as long as the products are secure from access or tampering.
Fugitive dust: The process may produce incidental dust as a natural result of the lifting and dumping of soil into the hopper, if the soil is particularly dry. During the process, moisture is added to the soil. As a result there is no dust that results from the action of discharging the remediated soil back to the ground. Remediated soil is in a fine particulate state. When it dries completely, which may take several days; there is the potential for windblown dust off of the soil stockpile. However, that dust is from remediated soil, and should not pose a health hazard.
Air pollution: The engine meets current emission control requirements for such equipment.
Water pollution: There is no contact with groundwater during the process (the contaminated soil is already excavated), nor is there any release of chemicals or biological products, diluted or undiluted, into public sewers or storm drains (note: some of these products, in a diluted form, are in fact prescribed for use in cleaning sewers and storm drains). Small amounts of the diluted treatment solution may puddle on the ground as an incidental by product of operating the equipment. This liquid quickly evaporates and/or is absorbed into the soil deposited from the remediation process.
Noise: The soils processing machinery, when operating, produces a noise level comparable to a medium-sized residential gasoline generator. The noise level is typically less than that produced by the loader equipment being used to dump contaminated soil into the machinery. Equipment operators are not required to wear protective hearing devices.