ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies from a regulatory perspective, the various environmental and public health problems that have resulted from soil being contaminated with petroleum by-products. The high costs associated with the transportation of hazardous waste, and fees charged by hazardous waste landfills, became a major financial burden to companies with large volumes of petroleum contaminated soil. Federal and state waste reduction programs are placing more and more responsibility on the generators of hazardous waste to recycle or treat contaminated soils that are amenable to recycling or treatment. The liability for the disposal of petroleum contaminated soil at hazardous waste landfills remains with the generator of the waste indefinitely. Petroleum contamination had migrated beneath multistory commercial buildings, under roads, highways, and major intersections, and hazardous waste landfills were receiving record amounts of petroleum contaminated soil.
