Industrial ecology and groundwater contamination

Abstract

This paper reviews the contemporary legal, hydrological, engineering, waste management and water supply literature to illustrate the prevailing knowledge about the environmental processes that operated in waste disposal settings. Framed as a question of past ecological knowledge, it traces the emergence of business managers' conceptualisation of their place in the industrial ecosystem. It also examines the institutionalisation of groundwater pollution by numerous professional groups to illustrate the processes of internalisation. Finally, it offers a historically supported account of the context within which those decision makers' operated. Tracing this process historically offers critical insights into problems and management procedures that might assist with managing wastes associated with the globalisation of industry in new areas.