The situation of groundwater remediation in Italy with a specific reference to the applicability of the permeable reactive barrier technology

The remediation of contaminated sites has become in last years one of the most important environmental emergencies, in Italy as in Europe. In Italy, there are presently about 50 sites (corresponding to an area of about 100.000 hectares, i.e. 0.3% of the overall surface of the national country) whose remediation is considered to be of national interest based on their environmental relevance. These sites are directly ruled by the Ministry of the Environment under the National Programme for Site Remediation, Law n. 426/1998 and Ministerial Decree 468/2001. A public financial support of about 750 millions of Euro is already available, mainly for preliminary actions such as site characterisation and emergency containment of contamination at these sites.