Bioremediation and other remediation technologies:

1. Does bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soil reduce toxicity and ecological risk?
2. Do harmful microbial metabolites accumulate in bioremediated soils?
3. How extensive or complete is microbial hydrocarbon degradation in hydrocarbon impacted soils?
4. Rapid, self-contained on-site soil remediation techniques and technology
5. Control of salt migration in the subsurface. Remediation of salt spills with recovery of brine components and prevention of groundwater contamination.
6. Phytoremediation - prove that it works

Risk Assessment:

1. Cost effective ecological risk assessment methods for petroleum impacted sites
2. Cost effective and relevant terrestrial (animal/plant) bioassays for use in ecological risk/impact assessment.
3. Field methods for ecological risk assessment
4. Methods to evaluate actual and future environmental risk of petroleum impacted soils (short and long-term effects)
5. Correlation between ecological risk assessment and human health risk assessment
6. Intrinsic bioremediation impact on risk based closures.
7. Risk-based guidelines for handling, disposal and storage of NORM- contaminated solids, pipe, and equipment (Current regulations are not health based.)

Measurement Technology:

1. Cost-effective methods (direct and indirect) for measuring the amount and extent of petroleum hydrocarbon sources in unsaturated and saturated soils
2. Useful and easy to implement field and analytical methods and protocols for demonstrating intrinsic bioremediation
3. Validate current models for predicting flash emissions of hydrocarbons in E&P operations

Process Technologies:

1. Control or treatment of flash gas emissions from stock tanks. Use, treatment or disposal of oil tank bottoms
2. Cost-effective capture, recycling/destruction of volatile organic compound emissions from hydrocarbon processing and storage tanks.
3. Water treatment methods - particularly those methods which a) have batch capability, b) are capable of handling widely varying flow rates, c) are capable of handling widely varying contaminant concentrations, d) can achieve removal of free phase hydrocarbons, e) can achieve removal of BTEX compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and MTBE, and f) are cost effective and generate minimal waste.
4. In-situ treatment of hydrogen sulfide in the reservoir.

Management and Decision Tools:

1. Plume migration of salt water from pits. (The one study concluded that, if the plume has moved away from the pit, there is no need to remove pit contents. More work is needed in this area.)
2. Consideration of the full life cycle cost of material and waste handling in the petroleum industry
3. Proper pit closure using a clay or compacted soil cap. (Currently, this has not been addressed in pit closure procedures. Many pits are closed with caps in such a manner so as to allow mud effluent with high chloride to leach to the surface and kill vegetation. Studies to determine how to properly close a pit with high chloride content would be useful.)
4. A large problem in the management of drilling wastes is the proper disposal of oil base mud solids. If burial is used, what can be mixed with oil base mud cuttings and solids to properly prevent leaching?
5. Can historical oil field pollution be differentiated from recent, current and/or ongoing pollution?

Recycle & Beneficial Re-use:

1. The Oklahoma highway department does not have recommendations for proper mixtures of tank bottoms and soil to make a good road base. Studies to determine what would constitute a good mixture