Phytoremediation is the direct use of living plants for in situ remediation of contaminated soil, sludges, sediments, and ground water through contaminant removal, degradation, or containment. Growing and, in some cases, harvesting plants on a contaminated site as a remediation method is an aesthetically pleasing, solar-energy driven, passive technique that can be used to clean up sites with shallow, low to moderate levels of contamination. This technique can be used along with or, in some cases, in place of mechanical cleanup methods. Phytoremediation can be used to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and landfill leachates. Phytoremediation has been studied extensively in research and small-scale demonstrations, but full-scale applications are currently limited in number. Further development and research of the mechanisms described below likely will lead to wider acceptance and use of phytoremediation.

"June 1999." "Prepared by Environmental Management Support, Inc. ... under contract 68-W6-0014"--T.p. verso. "EPA 542-B-99-003." Includes bibliographical references.