Bilateral Agreement

1. facilitate an understanding of each country's approach to the remediation of contaminated sites,
2. evaluate innovative remedial technologies according to the standards of both countries, and
3. facilitate international technology exchange.

Activities of 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 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (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

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• Harbauer Soil Washing/Vacuum-Distillation System (PDF) (110 pp, 2.2MB) August 1996
• Hochtief Umwelt Thermal Desorption System (PDF) (82 pp, 777 KB ) June 1998
• Nordac Soil Washing System (PDF) (63 pp, 442 KB) February 1998
• Entsorgungsbetriebe Duisburg/ZÜBLIN Knv Catalytic Oxidation System (PDF) (64 pp, 675 KB) December 1997
• AQUABOX 50 and MARABU Packed Biological Reactor System Technology Evaluation Innovative Technology Evaluation Report (PDF) (65 pp, 1276 KB) (EPA/540/R-07/003) June 2007 – Abstract

U.S. EPA and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) entered into a Bilateral Agreement on Contaminated Waste 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.

Please visit http://www.bilateral-wg.org for more information.