Patent US 6,447,207

A remediation composition for cleaning a soil mass and ground water contaminated with an organic contaminant and for reducing emanation of foul air from contaminated sites. The composition comprises an aqueous carrier, TRITON X-100 as a first surfactant, and a second surfactant which is selected from a group of surfactants consisting of TRITON X-155 and TRITON X-190. In presence of certain hydrocarbon, a total contaminant-emulsifying capacity of the remediation composition is greater than a sum of the contaminant-emulsifying capacities of the first and second surfactants. In another aspect of the present invention, surfactants TRITON X-15, TRITON X-35 and TRITON X-45 are used in association with TRITON X-100 such that their miscibilities with an aqueous carrier in the presence of TRITON X-100 is greater than their solubilities with the aqueous carrier alone. In yet another aspect of the invention, the remediation solutions are applied in situ to a contaminated site and the ground water table in the contaminated soil is repeatedly raised above and lowered below the contaminated region during the entire remediation process.