ABSTRACT
Environmental remediation is changing rapidly in United States because there is not enough money presently to support the environmental infrastructure that was erected by Congress, attorneys, environmental consultants, and regulators in the wake of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), and to pay for cleanup as well. In this chapter, the author believe the future of environmental remediation lies in a recognition that money matters and that results matter even more. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) applies to federal agencies whenever they approve a project that has the potential to adversely affect the environment. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is already increasing its recognition of natural attenuation. The increasing reliance on natural attenuation for these sites would be encouraging, except that it still takes immense amounts of time to ultimately decide that natural attenuation can remediate a given site. Natural attenuation has to be forcibly given pre-eminence in existing environmental statutes.
