In Our Experience: Revealing Practitioner Perspectives on Groundwater Remediation and Management through Oral History

Abstract Groundwater Remediation (GR) developed as a field of practice to restore subsurface environments damaged by improper disposal of hazardous substances. Despite aggressive regulatory enforcement and the development of increasingly sophisticated remediation technologies, health‐based standards and unrestricted reuse have still not been realized for a large number of sites. In GR practice, ideal remediation targets such as complete mass removal must be approached through cost‐effective and achievable measures that are protective of public health. As such, GR practitioners are routinely forced to find practical pathways to navigate complex trade‐offs. Our project aimed to reveal more details about these complexities and make previously unpublished knowledge and experience in GR more accessible. In 2013–2018, our team conducted a multidisciplinary study based on GR stakeholder interviews. Taking a “career oral history” approach, we elicited professionally informed, personal perspectives on groundwater remediation challenges, and we applied Oral History Indexing methods and other qualitative analysis techniques to manage the audio‐recorded interviews. We elicited current commentary about technical, policy, and managerial concepts that influence the remediation process. Here, we recount and comment on subjects engaged by the narrators, enhancing perspective on existing areas of concern (e.g., adaptive management and public participation), and introducing new topics of discussion to the GR community (e.g., importance of property values). Our project provides a historical record of practices and mindsets in GR to date and documents a cross section of knowledge in the context of ongoing developments in the field.