ABSTRACT
Remediation of a site contaminated with petroleum products is a mixture of "good news/bad news." The good news is that petroleum compounds are relatively straightforward to treat. The bad news is that gasoline is nearly ubiquitous in the environment. Petroleum products are mixtures of hydrocarbons; that is, a class of chemical compounds that contain only the elements hydrogen and carbon; hence, hydrocarbon. All hydrocarbons are composed only of the elements hydrogen and carbon in a vast array of possible combinations. Crude petroleum, which may consist of hundreds of individual compounds must be refined to separate the constituents into useful fractions. The energy to run vehicles is derived from "fossil fuels". Burning hydrocarbons releases chemical energy stored in these compounds by microorganisms when plant material was reduced under anaerobic conditions. The effects and symptoms of hydrocarbon exposure are difficult to quantify on a clinical basis.
