Book excerpt: This valuable resource discusses several strategies of manipulating colloids for environmental restoration, identifies advantages and disadvantages of each strategy, and considers obstacles limiting the application of each strategy. Approaches evaluated include the following: Chemical modification of subsurface systems to mobilize or deposit colloids in situ Altering the mobility of microorganisms to improve delivery of microbes for bioremediation Manipulating colloids or biocolloids (bacteria) to change aquifer permeability to either enhance bioremediation or create in situ barriers Introducing modified colloids, surfactants, and emulsions to control colloid mobility or to increase recovery of sorbed contaminants by pump and treat methods Manipulation of Groundwater Colloids for Environmental Restoration also contains short, focused research reports on specific studies relevant to the various approaches under consideration. Subjects covered range from mobility of organic macromolecules by controlled field injection experiments to new techniques that investigate surface chemistry and aggregation of inorganic colloids. Other topics discussed include the depositional behavior and transport of biocolloids in porous media, surfactants as modifiers of surface binding sites on colloids, and genetic engineering of microorganisms to serve as contaminant-scavenging biocolloids. Manipulation of Groundwater Colloids for Environmental Restoration is an excellent resource for research scientists in hydrology, chemistry, and microbiology; environmental consultants; regulators; environmental engineers; bioremediation microbiologists; and engineers.