| Lindane Remediation
Role of the NIR Operon in Cyanobacteria in
Dechlorination of Lindane
Earlier research by a current staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
has identified a gene that may be responsible for the effect of nitrates and
nitrites upon the ability of bacteria to dechlorinate the pesticide lindane. The
results serve as a model for further study of the mechanism of accelerating
biodegradation and bioremediation using sources of fixed nitrogen.
Bioremediation as an industry.
Many of the versatile critters that we discussed today are
presently being used to treat soils and waters at the more than 50,000 hazardous
waste sites in the U.S. In some cases bioreactors are being used to "pump
and treat" contaminated ground waters. Contaminated soils are often treated
by adding selected bacteria and nutrients to the soil to increase the natural
rate of breakdown of xenobiotic chemicals. In some instances just adding
nutrients (e.g. oxygen to anaerobic ground water or sediments, Fig. 44.21)
can stimulate the biodegradation of pollutants. All of the above are expensive
and bioremediation of our past environmental mistakes is now a multi-billion
dollar (tax payer funded) industry in this country.
Bioremediation Resource Guide
EPA/542-B-93-004
EPA/542-B-93-004a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response Technology Innovation Office
September 1993
Development of Water and Soil Treatment Technology Based on the
Utilization of a White-Rot, Wood Rotting Fungus. Glaser, J.A., U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH, Hazardous Waste Engineering
Research Laboratory, August 1988 NTIS Document Number: PB88-238175/LL The wood
rotting fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, has been selected as a candidate
species to be used as a degrader of hazardous waste organic constituents found
in liquids and soils. The selection of the species is attributable to its rapid
growth, its ability to degrade lignin rapidly, its ability to asexually
multiply, and its high temperature optimum. Based on the fungus' ability to
degrade lignin, several investigators speculated that the fungus should be able
to degrade aromatic organic constituents found in hazardous waste. Early studies
with the polychlorinated biphenyl mixture Arochlor 1254, DDT, lindane and
other chlorinated contaminants indicated that the fungus may have exceptional
degradative abilities. The lignin degrading ability of the fungus is a secondary
metabolic cycle that is controlled by the absence of certain nutrients.
http://207.86.51.66/download/remed/bioguide.txt
First results of a pilot decontamination
in a PCP polluted building by means of a humidity controlled thermal process
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