Water Cleanup at Thousands of Sites Unlikely For 50 to 100 Years, Research Council Says

At least 126,000 sites across the United States have contaminated groundwater that requires remediation, and restoration for about 10 percent of these sites is unlikely to be completed in the next 50 years to 100 years, according to a report from the National Research Council released Nov. 8.

The report, Alternatives for Managing the Nation’s Contaminated Groundwater Sites (2012), said that the estimated cost of cleanup ranges from $110 billion to $127 billion, but the figures for both the number of sites and costs are likely underestimated.

The contaminated sites include superfund sites and other facilities that handle and ...