Cost guide

Soil Remediation Cost: A State Homeowner Survey

Last reviewed November 2026. Primary sources were accessed November 7, 2026. Dates are Mountain Standard Time (Phoenix).

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The homeowner range below is a 2001 Massachusetts survey of heating-oil spills. It is not a current national price.

What the data shows

Primary sources first. We did not find a current national price for residential soil remediation. The homeowner figures below are a 2001 Massachusetts survey of heating-oil spills, printed in a 2004 guide. They are not a 2026 market average.

Massachusetts DEP Homeowner Oil Spill Cleanup Guide

Government survey · Survey 2001; guide updated Jan 2004 · Accessed Nov 7, 2026

In 2001, Massachusetts DEP surveyed 510 homeowners who had a home heating-system oil spill. Cost data came from 159 of them. Most cleanups completed in four months or less: $20,000 or less. Typical cleanup cost range: $20,000 to $50,000. Average cleanup costs when both soil and groundwater were affected: $90,000. Some cleanups exceeded $300,000. The guide says costs were lower when the spill was cleaned up quickly and groundwater was not affected.

Confidence: Low

Massachusetts DEP: Dealing with a Spill

Government · Undated PDF; Baker administration letterhead · Accessed Nov 7, 2026

Expect to pay about $50 per ton to dispose of petroleum-contaminated soil. The sheet says digging up hundreds of cubic yards can cost a significant amount, and it tells the reader to agree on how much soil will be removed before the first shovel. It does not state a project total.

Confidence: Low

Current national residential soil-remediation average

Government / industry survey · n/a · Accessed Nov 7, 2026

Not found

Confidence: Low

Typical range for homeowners

Heating-oil spill cleanup, Massachusetts survey

$20,000 to $50,000 (Massachusetts DEP Homeowner Oil Spill Cleanup Guide)

How it was derived

We did not calculate it. Massachusetts DEP printed "Typical cleanup cost range: $20,000 to $50,000" from its 2001 homeowner survey (Massachusetts DEP Homeowner Oil Spill Cleanup Guide). The same page says most cleanups finished in four months or less were $20,000 or less, and the average when both soil and groundwater were involved was $90,000.

Disposal unit price

About $50 per ton for petroleum-contaminated soil, from a separate Massachusetts DEP sheet (Massachusetts DEP: Dealing with a Spill). That is disposal only. Excavation, sampling, and reports are not in that figure.

What it is not

A 2026 national price, and not a price for industrial Superfund sites, agricultural soil, or a tank pull with no spill. The survey is more than twenty years old. Confidence stays low for that reason.

Confidence

Low

We did not turn $50 per ton into a project total. The sheet does not say how many tons a typical yard contains.

What the Massachusetts pages say changes the cost

  • Groundwater. The 2001 survey's average was $90,000 when both soil and groundwater were affected, against a typical range of $20,000 to $50,000 overall (Massachusetts DEP Homeowner Oil Spill Cleanup Guide).
  • Delay. The guide says cleanups cost less when the spill was addressed quickly and groundwater was kept out of the release.
  • How much soil is dug up. The disposal sheet warns that stockpiling hundreds of cubic yards gets expensive at about $50 per ton (Massachusetts DEP: Dealing with a Spill).
  • A tank removal that finds no contamination is a different scope. State removal ranges are on the tank removal cost guide, and those guides say cleanup is usually extra.

FAQ

How much does soil remediation cost?

A current national residential average was not found. Massachusetts DEP's 2001 survey of heating-oil spills, printed in a guide updated in January 2004, calls $20,000 to $50,000 a typical cleanup range (Massachusetts DEP Homeowner Oil Spill Cleanup Guide).

What does that survey measure?

Home heating-system oil spills in Massachusetts. Cost answers came from 159 of 510 homeowners surveyed in 2001. It is not a census of every soil job.

Why is the confidence low?

The survey year is 2001 and the guide's update is January 2004. Our confidence key marks a figure dated before 2022 as low, even when a government page states it directly.

What does the per-ton disposal figure leave out?

It is a disposal expectation on a Massachusetts DEP sheet (Massachusetts DEP: Dealing with a Spill). Digging, trucking, sampling, and the report are separate. The sheet does not give a tons-per-job figure.

Is tank removal the same job?

No. State tank guides publish a removal range and then say sampling, cleanup, a replacement tank, and landscaping are usually extra. See the tank removal cost guide.

What if groundwater is affected?

In that 2001 survey, the average cleanup involving both soil and groundwater was $90,000, and some cleanups exceeded $300,000 (Massachusetts DEP Homeowner Oil Spill Cleanup Guide). That is the survey result, not a quote for a house today.

How we built these numbers

  • Source order: we start with government sources (EPA, HUD, state agencies), then public bid or contract unit prices (state contracts, school districts, cities), then industry survey data. Angi, HomeAdvisor, This Old House, HomeGuide and Fixr are shown only in a separate consumer-reported section and are not used to set the headline ranges.
  • Each figure in the tables is one we read on the cited page or document, with the source type, year, link, confidence and the date we accessed it (Mountain Standard Time, Phoenix). Where we found nothing, the table says Not found.
  • Typical ranges are our own arithmetic, with one sentence on how each was derived. We do not average bids of different scope, and a range is only as good as the sources it rests on, which is why each one carries a confidence rating.
  • Public bid prices are unit prices from institutional buyers, and they may include prevailing-wage rules and larger project sizes. They are examples of what contractors bid, not residential averages.
  • We do not use proprietary estimating databases such as RSMeans, Xactimate or HomeWyse, and we do not quote them.
  • We plan to add quotes collected from contractors in our directory later, and will label them as a separate source type.
  • Confidence key: High means a government source states the figure directly or two independent primary sources agree. Medium means one primary source read in full, or primary sources that agree only loosely. Low means dated before 2022, unclear scope, a program budget estimate or a single source. Consumer-reported rows are capped at Medium.
  • We refresh figures at least twice a year and show the last-reviewed date. Where a contractor listing is mentioned, the directory's phrase is license on record.

Sources

Contractors by state

These links go only to states where the directory currently lists soil remediation contractors. The figures above stay national.

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Related guides

Taking the tank out is a different line from cleaning up a spill. See the tank removal cost guide for state removal ranges that exclude cleanup.