Launching a bioremediation project is like a doctor administering a treatment; you can't just walk away. The final, and arguably most important, step in the toolkit is monitoring. This is the process of gathering evidence to prove the cleanup is working, ensure it stays on track, and know when the job is finally done.

You've assessed your site and decided to treat the contamination in place. The big question now is, do you work with the microbes you already have, or do you need to bring in a specialized team? This is the choice between biostimulation and bioaugmentation, and it's where the active cleanup truly begins.

Once you know the what, where, and who of your contamination problem, you face a major strategic decision: Do you treat the problem right where it is, or do you dig it up and treat it somewhere else? This choice between an in situ (Latin for "in position") and an ex situ ("out of position") approach will define the entire remediation project.