Essay on The Use of Bioremediation to Clean Up the Environment

Does Bleach Eliminate Bacteria? Abstract There are many methods used to destroy bacteria and this experiment tests the affects of Clorox bleach on bacteria. It will outline the methods used to determine if bleach could, or should be, used to decrease the amount of bacteria and whether or not this particular method is effective. The experiment will also test whether the levels of phosphorus and phosphatase in the soil are affected.

1) The remedy chosen must attain a degree of cleanup that assures the protection of human health and environment. 2) The hazardous substances that will remain after the cleanup, they must meet the applicable and/or relevant and appropriate requirements under federal and state law (ARARs). 3) The remedy chosen must utilize permanent solutions and alternative treatment technologies or resource recovery technologies to the maximum extent applicable. 4) There must be cost effective response, taking into consideration total long-and short-term costs of the actions. And 5) It must be in accordance with the NCP to a practicable

The radioactive elements and huge concentration of salt that is injected into the shale rocks concerns the nation because they’ve seen cases to when those chemicals have found their way into our water and even our air. In results of this problem- biology professor Robert Jackson, discusses in Source D- how he, along with some researchers, analyze two hundred private wells of residents in

The cleanup is a three-phase plan, estimated to remove more than 99% of the PAH mass from the area, which has begun and will hopefully undo the previous generations of damage. Phase one is building a box to contain the contamination. Upon completion of the first phase, there will be a double steel-walled barricade surrounding contaminated sediment. Phase two involves of dredging the polluted deposits from the adjacent areas and placing them within the enclosure. The final phase of the project encompasses removing the water from the suppression area and placing a waterproof cap on the facility, which is anticipated to have a 200 year life span, to seal in the chemicals.

What if there was a way to clean up radioactive waste spills? To clean it out of waters for safe consumption? For years and years people have seen the ways that bacteria can clean up oil spills and nuclear waste, and where baffled on how they did so. How did something so small, clean up a mess so big? Gemma Reguera and her team at Michigan State have solved the age long question. They have decided that bacteria do so by a hair like pili. The pili acts much like a conductive wire, by transferring electrons. Geobacter Sulfurreduncen is one of the many bacteria that do so. The energy conducted by the pili, in turn powers the bacteria. Geobacter, for short, is able to both isolate and, in a sense, kill off uranium in contaminated ground water.

Fruitvale was a perfect town. There was a nice creek (Strawberry Creek) that dogs and children could play in and a very good diner that families could eat out at. Fruitvale was a mini fairy-tale land, until they hit reality. Fruitvale was recently contaminated by a No-Bug Pesticide that farmers had been using to get rid of the bugs eating their crops. Twelve wells were tested and the No-Bug Pesticide had not contaminated the Fruitvale Municipal Water Well yet. After one year, we tested all of the wells again to see how far the contaminant has spread. We have found that Fruitvale has approximately three years to get Fruitvale de-contaminated. We want to keep the cost at a minimum and all of the Fruitvale residents safe. To meet these goals, we hypothesize that bioremediation would be the most efficient way to accomplish the following task of making Fruitvale a safe

There once lived a girl who was known for her amazing storytelling talents. The girl and her classmates were headed to New York, when their bus stopped moving. Instead of going to watch the Broadway musical they were all s excited to see, they were stuck in traffic. In order to pass the time, one of the chaperone’s decided to have a storytelling contest. All of the kids had to tell a story, and the winner would get a free meal at the restaurant of their choice. All of the students looked to the same person in order to start off the contest: a brown-haired, blue-eyed girl sitting with her best friend. The blue-eyed girl was known for her storytelling talents, and all of her peers would listen whenever she would tell a story. The girl started

ioremediation refers to the use of organisms, particularly microorganisms, to transform or degrade a contaminant to make it harmless (Antizar-Ladislao 2010). One well- characterized example is the bioremediation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the Alaska coast; the treatment has largely eliminated pollutants and wastes along hundreds of miles of coastline (Atlas and Hazen 2011). Currently, bioremediation is regarded as a cost-effective remediation technology potentially appropriate for large polluted areas, such as contaminated water and soil. Its potential safety and efficiency will certainly accelerate further development of the

Another common remediation technique is stabilization or solidification which aims to alter the contaminants into a less soluble or mobile form (Wuana and Okieimen, 2011; Mulligan, Yong, and Gibbs, 2001; United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1991). In both methods water and a site-specific chemical solution is mixed into the soil to either alter its physical - make it less soluble - or chemical - reduce mobility - properties to make it less likely that the contaminants will move into other locations or be inhaled (Wuana and Okieimen, 2011; Mulligan, Yong, and Gibbs, 2001). Chemical treatment can also fall under the umbrella term of stabilization. Chemical treatment is add chemical solutions to the soil to detoxify the soil and can be used as a pre-treatment for other techniques such as solidification (Wuana and Okieimen, 2011; Mulligan, Yong, and Gibbs, 2001). These techniques are typically preferred due to lower costs but other physical elements of the soil, such as boulders, can make mixing the soil difficult and the process can volatilize and release volatile compounds (Mulligan, Yong, and Gibbs, 2001; United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1991). Mobility of contaminants can also be reduced by using the technique of vitrification through the process of heating up the soil (Wuana and Okieimen, 2011; United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1991). This method results

Deposition of the various wastes from the excavation process has a significant effect on the composition of micro-organisms on the environment. The remains are composed of biocides and heavy metal which have a significant effect on the environment and its inhabitants. Natural gases that escape such as methane mix with vapor from the environment, resulting in increased acidity of the soil. This reduces the productivity of land as crops do very poorly under such saline conditions (DiGiulion, Wilkin, Miller & Oberley, 2011). The acid levels leak to the earth’s surface changing the oxygen and bacterial contents of the soil structure. This in return results in the plants being unable to fix nitrogen, the consequence being the reduced hydration capability if the plant hampering the formation of cellulose hence weak and contaminated plants will be

People, viewing themselves as a part of nature, can exist as a species only through consumption and destruction of natural resources: even the energy and resources for nature protection people receive by destroying its most important part - the lithosphere. The development of technological progress increased the negative impact on the environment, however, in recent decades there have come certain positive changes in approach toward qualitative improvement in environmental management with successful development of waste-free production, implementation of new technologies to reduce the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, improvement of soil health, enhancement of crop quality parameters, and etc.

In the textbook, Taylor states, pollution is “The direct or indirect introduction as a result of human activity… which may be harmful to human health or the quality of the environment”(239). Therefore, the cleanup focuses on cleaning up pollution from the habitat of the beach in order to return some of the quality to the land organisms live on. In addition, due to the overabundance of trash that ends up in the landfill yearly, 750 kg per a person during the year of 2000 (Taylor, 255), the consumption habits of people relates to the clean up because the need to consume rather than reuse is what causes so much waste. A key concept that can help reduce the amount of waste caused pollution is to follow the waste hierarchy when consuming. The waste hierarchy, as discussed by Taylor (254, 260), is looking at consumption in a cradle-to-cradle style rather than cradle-to-grave, as a means of giving products a second life through reprocessing and reuse rather than a product’s use ending in a landfill. One possible solution can be found through green consumption, which relates to the prevention or reuse of products as mentioned in the waste hierarchy (Taylor, 260). If more reusable items are used this means less material will end up in the landfill, and less in the landfill means less overflow will end up in the Great Lakes. Therefore, the beach clean up related to waste and

Creating environmentally safe structures has the obvious advantage of protection from potential health risks, but this also usually costs more to build and maintain. ISCO is very efficient at cleaning up contaminants, but it can also potentially be expensive and maybe invasive, if the contamination has gone on long enough. The creation of new wells to pump the oxidant through may be essential to maximize the cleanup. This will make the project more expensive and would also use more land and possibly create issues with access to current wells. If no action is taken to cleanup, contain, or prevent water contamination it could have catastrophic consequences. Humans rely heavily on clean, usable water. Not just for drinking and bathing, but for agriculture as well. Taking no actions to cleanup or contain contamination could have detrimental effects not only on human health, but also on local wildlife and

The inorganic metals that often plague brownfields include arsenic, cadmium, zinc, nickel and copper. However, the bioavailability of other problematic metals such as lead and chromium are very low and require more advanced resources and strategies in order to be extracted. In addition to these toxic metals, it has been suggested that phytoextraction techniques can be used to remove radionuclides that exist in sites with mixed wastes. Radionuclide refers to any element that emits radiation and that can cause cancer through drinking water that it contaminates. In addition to the environmental and health concerns that brownfields pose, there are also many sociological impacts associated with them.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE (ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY AND POLLUTION CONTROL)