Processes, assessment and remediation of contaminated sediments / Процессы, оценка и очистка загрязненных отложений

The decades of the 1960s and 1970s reflected an awakening of an environmental consciousness in America and increasing efforts to reduce the uncontrolled or poorly controlled releases into the natural environment that had characterized past human activity. It is perhaps hard to understand today the common belief that the air, soil and water were effectively limitless and therefore appropriate for largely uncontrolled disposal of our wastes. It is also hard to imagine that during the 1940s through the 1960s there were acute air pollution episodes in various cities around the globe that led to the premature deaths of people at a rate that was easily observable. More than 4,000 excess deaths occurred during a "killer smog” episode in London in 1952 due to the combination of normal air emissions and adverse atmospheric conditions. These acute episodes helped galvanize public opinion, leading ultimately to regulations such as the Clean Air Act amendments of 1970. Following passage of these regulations, air quality improvements were rapid in many areas although we continue to work to manage the more difficult air pollution problems.
Similarly, Love Canal in New York helped focus public and regulatory attention on contaminated soil. The identification of severe soil pollution problems associated with past disposal options led directly to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), or "Superfund”, legislation of 1980. This and other regulatory actions led to a significant focus on soil and groundwater contamination in the decades that followed.
Our experience with water quality was less driven by specific events but by a general recognition of the problems with the surface waters. It is difficult to imagine that until the 1960s many of our cities had minimal waste treatment and the water quality of many of our streams and rivers was very poor. The improvements in waste treatment practices and control of industrial and municipal effluents, for example after the 1972 Clean Water Act, led to dramatic improvements in the quality of our waters. <...>