Remediation of Soils by Washing Processes — an Historical Overview

Abstract

In the early Seventies the protection of soil was included in the environmental program of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany (Umweltprogramm der Bundesregierung 1971) as one of the major goals for the environmental policy. Nevertheless, the enormous relevance of the contaminated sites problem was not perceived in its total extent until the registration of contaminated sites began in the early Eighties. By 1993 more than 139,000 presumably contaminated sites were registered in Germany, including about 86,000 abandoned waste disposal sites and about 53,000 closed industrial sites (Franzius 1995).