What Is Environmental Remediation?

Environmental restoration refers to adopting physical, chemical and biological technical measures to the polluted environment to reduce the concentration of pollutants existing in the environment, reduce the toxicity or completely harmless.

Environmental remediation refers to adopting physical, chemical and biological technical measures to the polluted environment to reduce the concentration or toxicity of various pollutants existing in the environment or to achieve harmlessness, so that the environment can be partially or completely restored to pollution Initial state. ^[1]

Remediation in the environmental sense refers to the use of physical, chemical, and biological technical measures on the polluted environment. It means that the concentration of pollutants existing in the environment is reduced or the toxicity is reduced or completely harmless. It can be understood from three aspects.

Defining a polluted environment and a healthy environment

The first is to define a polluted environment and a healthy environment. Environmental pollution is the excessive concentration of any substance or energy factor, which exceeds the carrying capacity of the environment, thus showing harmful phenomena to the environment. Therefore, the polluted environment can be defined as an environment where the quality of any substance is excessively reduced and its function is degraded. The opposite of a polluted environment is a healthy environment. The healthiest environment is the one with the original background value. ^[3]

The industrial revolution greatly changed the course of human social civilization development, so that while enjoying the rich fruits created by industrial civilization, people also suffered from the ensuing environmental pollution and ecological damage. Red tides in the ocean occur frequently; pollution from coal-fired smoke has not yet been resolved, and photochemical pollution has begun to emerge. The problems of garbage siege, white pollution and hazardous waste are very prominent. Although environmental pollution is getting worse and the state of pollution is more complicated, people have higher and higher requirements for environmental quality. Not only must we focus on the pollution produced in production areas and living areas, but also the pollution of soil, rivers, lakes, oceans, groundwater, waste gas and solid waste storage sites caused by production, life and accidents. This is pollution. Environmental restoration works. Pollution prevention projects, traditional environmental down-range (ie, "three waste" treatment projects), and environmental restoration projects belong to the three stages of pre-, mid-, and post-production of pollution control. They all constitute the entire process system of pollution control. Since the "Ninth Five-Year Plan", China has begun to make great efforts to focus on the three lakes (Lake, Chaohu, Dianchi), the three rivers (Huaihe, Haihe, Liaohe), the two areas (acid rain control area, sulfur dioxide control area), and the first city (Beijing City), One Bay (Bohai Rim), etc. And has achieved obvious results, accumulated a lot of experience for the restoration of polluted environment.

Remediation technology for pollution of the environment is nothing more than three categories of physical methods, chemical methods and biological methods. In view of the strong role of organisms in the process of absorption, transport, degradation, transformation, and fixation of pollutants, bioremediation has low investment, Low operating costs and few final products. Therefore, the restoration project of polluted environment in China should adopt the strategy of bioremediation as the main and physical and chemical rehabilitation as the supplement. Bioremediation engineering is an important part of environmental engineering. Although it has not appeared for a long time, it has developed very quickly and has become an important growth point for technological development in the field of environmental protection. ^[4]

According to the objects of environmental restoration, environmental restoration can be divided into four types: soil environment restoration, water environment restoration, atmospheric environment restoration, and solid waste environment restoration.

Environmental restoration technology refers to the means used by humans to repair the environment. The object of environmental restoration is the natural world, and the corresponding technical effect object is also the natural world. The basic role of technology is to change the form and state of movement in nature. As a result, four basic technologies of engineering technology, physical technology, chemical technology and biotechnology were formed.

Engineering technology: Engineering technology refers to mechanical technology in the broad sense. It is an artificial mechanical natural process and is used to change the state of mechanical movement and the shape of natural objects in the natural world.

Physical technology: Physical technology is an artificial physical natural process that is used to change the physical properties of natural objects.

Chemical technology: Chemical technology is an artificial chemical natural process that is used to change the chemical composition of substances in nature.

Biotechnology: Biotechnology is an artificial life movement process and is used to change the movement state and properties of living organisms.

Based on this, environmental restoration can be divided into engineering restoration,

Environmental damage means damage to the structure, function and internal and external relations of the environmental ecosystem. Relief for environmental damage cannot be solved by the traditional damage compensation mechanism. Practical measures should be taken to repair the function and structure of the damaged ecosystem and restore the internal and external relations of the damaged ecosystem. Due to the lack of effective countermeasures in traditional laws, it is necessary to design environmental restoration as a new control tool and relief tool, and provide for it in the Basic Law of Environmental Protection and related separate laws. The purpose of the environmental restoration system is not only to restore the structure and function of the damaged ecological environment, but also to fix the relationship between people and nature that have deteriorated, and to provide institutional guarantee for the establishment of a harmonious society. ^[5]

Environmental restoration is a legal relief provided for environmental damage, and its purpose is to restore the function and value of the damaged environment by ordering those responsible for environmental damage to take comprehensive environmental improvement measures. With the increase of environmental public interest lawsuits and environmental criminal cases in the past decade, the form of legal remedy for environmental restoration has entered the category of court judicial decisions and is playing an increasingly important role. ^[6]