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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the German
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) entered into a Bilateral
Agreement in 1990 to gain a better understanding of each country's efforts
in developing and demonstrating remedial technologies. The overall objective
of the Bilateral Agreement is for each partner country to gain a comprehensive
understanding of the other’s approach to remediating hazardous
waste sites and evaluating the effectiveness of innovative technologies
being applied at these sites. The specific goals of the Bilateral Agreement
are to
- facilitate an understanding of each country's approach to the remediation
of contaminated
sites,
- evaluate innovative remedial technologies according to the standards
of both countries, and
- facilitate international technology exchange.
Activities conducted under the Bilateral Agreement have been implemented
in two phases. During Phase I, ten technologies at sites in the U.S.
and Germany were evaluated. Technology evaluations occurring in the
U.S. correspond to EPA Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE)
demonstrations; those occurring in Germany correspond to full-scale
site remediation activities. Technologies demonstrated during Phase
I include soil washing, thermal desorption, biological treatment, in-situ
radio frequency heating, vacuum distillation, catalytic oxidation, UV-oxidation,
pyrolysis, and in-situ ventilation.
Under Phase II of the Bilateral Agreement, SITE Program quality management
protocols were reviewed and used to develop a German equivalent, the
German Standard Procedure for the Evaluation of Remedial Technologies
(the DETAD). Both the U.S. and German quality management protocols were
then applied
