Glossary
Amended Water
Also: surfactant
Water with a wetting agent (surfactant) added so it soaks into asbestos-containing material more effectively during wet removal.
Amended water is water with a surfactant — a wetting agent — added to lower its surface tension so it penetrates asbestos-containing material rather than beading off it.
Plain water often won’t soak into dense or coated material fast enough to bind the fibers. The surfactant lets the water reach into the matrix, which is what makes wet methods actually effective at suppressing airborne fiber release during removal.
Amended water is standard for saturating material before stripping and for the ongoing wetting that NESHAP and OSHA require throughout the work.