Community Guides to Cleanup Technologies

The Community Guide series (formerly Citizen's Guides) is a set of two-page fact sheets describing cleanup methods used at Superfund and other hazardous waste cleanup sites. Each guide answers six questions about the method: 1) What is it? 2) How does it work? 3) How long will it take? 4) Is it safe? 5) How might it affect me? 6) Why use it?

Each guide also contains information about how many Superfund sites have used the technology and a case study description. The series was originally released in 2005, then updated with new information in 2012, 2016, and 2021. The content is maintained by EPA's Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation.

The following guides are also available in Spanish.

• Air Stripping (PDF) (2 pp, 999 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-001)
• Amended Sediment Caps (PDF) (2 pp, 617 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-002)
• Biochemical Reactors (PDF) (2 pp, 944 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-003)
• Bioremediation (PDF) (2 pp, 2.48 MB) (EPA 542-F-21-004)
• Capping (PDF) (2 pp, 776 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-005)
• Ecological Revitalization (PDF) (2 pp, 1.01 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-006)
• Evapotranspiration Covers (PDF) (2 pp, .99 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-007)
• Excavation of Contaminated Waste (PDF) (2 pp, 628 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-008)
• Fracturing for Site Cleanup (PDF) (2 pp, 561 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-009)
• Granular Activated Carbon Treatment (PDF) (2 pp, 1.33 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-010)
• Greener Cleanups (PDF) (2 pp, 1.28 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-011)
• In Situ Carbon Amendments (PDF) (2 pp, 737 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-012)
• In Situ Chemical Oxidation (PDF) (2 pp, 585 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-013)
• In Situ Chemical Reduction (PDF) (2 pp, 861 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-014)
• In Situ Sediment Amendments (PDF) (2 pp, 1.04 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-015)
• In Situ Thermal Treatment (PDF) (2 pp, 533 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-016)
• Incineration (PDF) (2 pp, 674 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-017)
• Monitored Natural Attenuation (PDF) (2 pp, 1.04 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-018)
• Permeable Reactive Barriers (PDF) (2 pp, 618 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-019)
• Phytotechnologies (PDF) (2 pp, 867 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-020)
• Pump and Treat (PDF) (2 pp, 779 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-021)
• Soil Vapor Extraction and Air Sparging (PDF) (2 pp, .99 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-022)
• Solidification and Stabilization (PDF) (2 pp, 496 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-023)
• Thermal Desorption (PDF) (2 pp, 645 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-024)
• Vapor Intrusion Mitigation (PDF) (2 pp, 700 KB) (EPA-542-F-21-025)
• Vertical Engineered Barriers (PDF) (2 pp, 1.02 MB) (EPA-542-F-21-026)