The invention consists of a method for treating media containing halogenated organic compounds (HOC's), including Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP), by: a) combining the media with a fluid containing one or more liquid hydrocarbons to form a media/fluid mixture; b) sonicating the mixture at audio frequency; and c) treating the fluid with sodium sonically dispersed in-situ in its molten state. The method may include additional steps to reduce the solids size of the media and to distill or extract HOC's from contaminated media Alternatively, the fluid can be decanted from the media after sonication, and treated separately with an alkali metal sonically dispersed in-situ in its molten state