Biggest oil spill in the US, it's under NYC
- Thread starter BCI
- Start date
Overall, a pretty interesting article.
It already answered how science and technology will solve it, though: ExxonMobil pumps out the recoverable oil and returns clean groundwater to the water table. The only way to completely clean it up, though, is to demolish the entire area, dispose of the contaminated soil, and rebuild.
From what little I know about remediation, it seems there is research being done into bacteria that will decompose and denature various toxins, and that may be the way to go here, if only the technology catches up in time. It doesn't sound like the problems at Greenpoint are going to go away quickly, so it may be a good candidate for such technologies 10, 20 years down the road, when all the "easy" cleanup is done and the intractable soil contamination remains.
It already answered how science and technology will solve it, though: ExxonMobil pumps out the recoverable oil and returns clean groundwater to the water table. The only way to completely clean it up, though, is to demolish the entire area, dispose of the contaminated soil, and rebuild.
From what little I know about remediation, it seems there is research being done into bacteria that will decompose and denature various toxins, and that may be the way to go here, if only the technology catches up in time. It doesn't sound like the problems at Greenpoint are going to go away quickly, so it may be a good candidate for such technologies 10, 20 years down the road, when all the "easy" cleanup is done and the intractable soil contamination remains.
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