NEW TOOLS FOR AN OLD, BUT ESCALATING PROBLEM.

Companies providing services to the rapidly expanding hazardous waste management market have begun emphasizing unusually innovative and cost-effective techniques. A high proportion of contaminant investigation and recovery cases are unique and must be dealt with as such. The causes are not difficult to pinpoint: the speed with which hazardous chemicals are being released into the environment; the changing awareness of their effects; and the necessity for a complex, multidisciplinary approach that applies engineering broadly to the chemical, biological, and physical sciences, often for the first time. Such strategies range in scale from brilliantly simple, like the current air suction technique used to recover organic solvents, to practical methods of organizing vast amounts of information, like computerized database management and graphics. Improvements fall into three general categories: cost savings, time savings, and technical management and communications improvements. These three areas will be discussed, using examples from the practice of Woodward-Clyde Consultants (WCC).