SRI International conducted experiments in a two-year, two-phase process to develop and evaluate hydrothermal extraction technology, also known as hot water extraction (HWE) technology, to separate petroleum-related contaminants and other hazardous pollutants from soil and sediments. In this process, water with added electrolytes (inexpensive and environmentally friendly) is used as the extracting solvent under subcritical conditions (150-300 C). The use of electrolytes allows us to operate reactors under mild conditions and to obtain high separation efficiencies that were hitherto impossible. Unlike common organic solvents, water under subcritical conditions dissolves both organics and inorganics, thus allowing opportunities for separation of both organic and inorganic material from soil. In developing this technology, our systematic approach was to (1) establish fundamental solubility data, (2) conduct treatability studies with industrial soils, and (3) perform a bench-scale demonstration using a highly contaminated soil. The bench-scale demonstration of the process has shown great promise. The next step of the development process is the successful pilot demonstration of this technology. Once pilot tested, this technology can be implemented quite easily, since most of the basic components are readily available from mature technologies (e.g., steam stripping, soil washing, thermal desorption). The implementation of this technology will revolutionize the conventional use of water in soil remediation technologies and will provide a stand-alone technology for removal of both volatile and heavy components from contaminated soil.