Significant amounts of toxic and non-toxic waste are generated during oil and gas extraction, refinement and transportation.  Industry by-products like volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds and spilled crude oil can pollute air, water, and soil at levels that are harmful to all strata of life when improperly managed. 

 

Conventional remediation technologies are very costly which can inhibit cleanup of contaminated brownfield sites and aquatic environments. The majority of traditional remediation approaches are expensive and energy intensive. ‘Pump-and-treat’ (cleaning polluted groundwater through extraction and filtration) and ‘dig-and-haul’ (where polluted soils are dug up and shipped off site), are not only expensive but are single-outcome technologies and have limited site-design potential beyond treatment. These traditional remediation approaches are often extremely invasive and disruptive and, by destroying the microenvironment, can greatly disrupt lake and ocean life and render soil infertile.