There's nothing unusual about highly polluted so-called superfund sites — there are 1,889 on the EPA's National Priority List — and those are the just the worst of the worst. Many are in places where further construction is critical, or where there are already buildings in place and use. For example, according to the EPA, a number of superfund site in California alone are under use by such entities and facilities as  Sacramento's Robert T. Matsui Waterfront Park, Texas Instruments, and Apple.

Remediation is the term of art, trying to remove as much of the pollution as possible and prevent toxins from affecting people in buildings. To that end, Land Science, a division of Regenesis, announced that it had been granted a US patent for a geomembrane that is installed as part of new building construction.

An encapsulated metalized layer is laid on a floor and then is covered with a nitrile-modified asphalt spray coating. The asphalt provides a surface that builders can deal with while nitrile is strongly resistant to chemicals.