However the presence of water between the media and the substrate being processed creates a lubricating cushion that can protect both the media and the surface from excess damage. This has the dual advantages of lowering media breakdown rates and preventing impregnation of foreign materials into the surface. Hence surfaces after wet blasting are extremely clean, there is no embedded secondary contamination from the media or from previous blasting process, and there is no static cling of dust to the blasted surface.