The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through its Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory's Releases Control Branch has undertaken research and development efforts to address the problem of leaking underground storage tanks (USTs). Under this effort, EPA is currently evaluating soil washing technology for cleaning up soil contaminated by the release of petroleum products from leaking underground storage tanks. Soil washing is a dynamic physical process which remediates contaminated soil via two mechanisms--particle separation and dissolution of the contaminants into the washwater. As a result of the washing process, a significant fraction of the contaminated soil is cleaned and can be returned into the original excavation or used as cleaned 'secondary' fill or aggregate material. Since the contaminants are more concentrated in the fine soil fractions, their separation and removal from the bulk soil increases the overall effectiveness of the process. Subsequent treatment will be required for the spent washwaters and the fine soil fractions. The soil washing program evaluated the effectiveness of soil washing technology in removing petroleum products (unleaded gasoline, diesel/home heating fuel, and waste crankcase oil) from an EPA-developed Synthetic Soil Matrix (SSM) and from actual site soils. Operating parameters such as contact time, washwater volume, rinsewater volume, washwater temperature, and effectiveness of additives were investigated.