Phytoremediation, a technology using plants to remediate or stabilize contaminants in soil, groundwater, or sediments, has recently received a great deal of attention from regulators, consultants, responsible parties, and stakeholders. Phytoremediation has become an attractive alternative to other clean up technologies due to its relatively low cost potential effectiveness and the inherently aesthetic nature of using plants to clean up contaminated sites. This focus on phytoremediation has lead scientists and regulators to be concerned that this technology will be considered at sites that are not appropriate for its use.

The intent of this document is to provide a tool that can be used to determine if phytoremediation has the ability to be effective at a given site. It is designed to complement existing phytoremediation documents such as the USEPA’s Introduction to Phytoremediation. It allows the user to take basic information from a specific site and, through a flow chart layout, decide if phytoremediation is feasible at that site.

The ITRC’s Phytoremediation work team has provided separate decision trees for three types of contaminated media (i.e. soil, groundwater, and sediments). Along with each decision tree, additional basic information is provided and is intended to support the decision tree, allowing it to remain in as simple a form as possible.

In addition to the decision trees, a brief overview of various types of phytoremediation and a section on stakeholder concerns are included. A glossary of terms used in the phytoremediation field is also included as a resource to the user.

The ITRC Phytoremediation work team is working on a second document, entitled, Technical Information and Regulatory Guidance for Phytoremediation of Organic Contamination. The intention of this decision tree document is to provide a logical link between technology overview documents and the planned technical and regulatory document.