More than $14 billion will be spent in 2015 to remove metals, VOCs and other contaminants from groundwater, according to Site Remediation World Markets published by the McIlvaine Company.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are present at more than two-thirds of the Superfund, EPA Resource and Recovery Act and Department of Defense sites and at almost half of the Department of Energy sites. VOCs (in the form of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, or BTEX) also are the primary contaminants at underground storage tank (UST) sites. Of the 12 contaminants most frequently found at Superfund and DOD sites, more than half are metals, primarily arsenic, chromium, lead, zinc, nickel and cadmium.

The US is the world leader and over the next few years will represent the largest market for groundwater remediation, the report says.

The remediation of groundwater at the Japanese Fukushima site will be ongoing and will represent 5 percent of the total groundwater remediation market.