Approximately 85%% of the hazardous waste sites in the United States
have contaminated ground water. The conventional approach for
remediating contaminated ground water has been to extract the
contaminated water, treat it above ground, and reinject or discharge the
clean water in a process known as "pump-and-treat." The recovered
contaminants must be disposed of separately. Pump-andtreat technologies
require considerable investment over an extended period of time, and it
has been shown that these technologies often do not actually remove the
source of the contamination. Current policies and laws stress
"permanent" remedies over simple containment methods. Consequently,
there is considerable interest in and effort being expended on
alternative, innovative treatment technologies for contaminated ground
water.