The Power of Bacteria to Fix the Oil Spill

Aerial photo of Gulf Oil Spill

Among the buzzwords of today, one that is passed around like the hot potato is, the Oil Spill.  By now, there is not an American who doesn’t know about the large quantities of oil floating on the Gulf of Mexico’s surface, pluming in its depths, and polluting its shores; but that’s about the extent of the average person’s knowledge.  What is being omitted is how to efficiently and economically resolve this problem; here’s the hook: it’s all-natural.  How is this possible?  The answer already lies in the world’s oceans.  Bacteria!

Every year, about 160,000 tons of oil is naturally released from the world’s collective ocean floors, but oil isn’t naturally clouding the world’s oceans.  So where does it all go?  The answer again is, bacteria.  Bacteria thrive on the oceans’ floors where oil is emitted and quite literally eat it.  Bacteria are capable of adapting in such ways that allow them to digest oil and produce a byproduct that is safely eaten by marine life.  The heavier parts of the oil that escape the bacteria sink back down to be digested as well.  This concept has been brought to labs to be applied to oil spill clean-up situations, and has successfully been applied to two significant oil spills in the past.  The spills were both cleaned up in a matter of weeks.

The limits of bacteria to eat waste are still beyond our imagination as proven by its ability to digest various forms of waste.  Their application is much more common than one would think; including the three examples given below:

Bacteria to stabilize Uranium: Even now, labs are testing another type of bacteria that scientists believe can “eat” Uranium.  The bacteria are capable of converting the elements from radioactive Uranium (VI) to stable Uranium (IV).  Why would we want to do this?  The answer is simple, because there are a large number of sites that exist as remnants of the Cold War and are common enough to do potential damage to major waterways and ecosystems.

Bacteria to clean up Perchlorate: Another application of such bacteria-based technology lies in Perchlorate contaminated sites arising from such contaminants as solid rocket fuel, flares, and munitions used by the U.S. defense and space programs.  In some sites, contamination close to the surface can be removed by excavation; but in others, the contamination is deep underground and very near the water table.  The Perchlorate can be dissolved into the ground water and proceed to poison nearby populations.  The engineering company, CDM, has successfully developed and patented a method of stimulating bacteria that are known to digest Perchlorate in water and produce clean water with a harmless byproduct.

Bacteria to treat wastewater: Wastewater treatment plants apply bacteria into the process of water purification.  Of the three most common methods of treating wastewater, bacteria are used in each of them including: the trickling filter, activated sludge, and anaerobic digestion.

Using bacteria to clean-up waste has proven effective in numerous situations.  For the Gulf Oil spill it could prove to be not only quicker and safer, but also cheaper than anything we’ve got so far.

References:
1) Looking Deep to Remediate Perchlorate http://www.cdm.com/NR/rdonlyres/C7E63C7A-CC59-4866-AE47-4FDBF570930C/0/LookingDeeptoRemediatePerchlorate.pdf

2)  Uranium eating bacteria clean radioactive  sites http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3372/uranium-eating-bacteria-clean-radioactive-sites?page=0%2C0

3) Tiny Tools to Tackle Oil Spills  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSlTUuqOKbI

4) Gulf Oil Spill – Microbes that will eat oil in weeks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-yVBXfW9Z4

5)Wetlands to clean up oil spills:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXrOyqlGe50

Green Infrastructure Solutions – NVOC’s Porous Pavement Performance Study

Sylvan Avenue –  Ann Arbor, Michigan: The City of Ann Arbor is currently installing one of the first permeable pavement streets in southeast Michigan.  Permeable pavement, due to its porous nature, allows a significant amount of storm water to be absorbed back into the ground, rather than adding to a city’s storm water system.  In combined sewer communities porous pavement saves money and energy that would normally be required to treat and/or pump storm water.  In communities where sewers are separated it, reduces polluted flow volumes from entering our waterways.   In addition, porous pavement also greatly reduces flooding.  However, much of what is known about the performance of porous pavement is theoretical and experimental.  Looking for trends and comparisons to better understand the changes in storm water volumes due to porous pavement, the city of Ann Arbor recently accepted a proposal from NVOC to evaluate storm water discharge before and after construction. .

To collect the data needed, NVOC installed a v-notch weir and two pressure transducers into the manhole directly in front of Sylvan Avenue’s storm water collection pipe (see photo).  Utilizing this data in combination with the weir plate and a rainfall data, comparisons can be formulated between rainfall event size and approximate discharge of water into Sylvan Avenue’s storm sewer.

NVOC began preconstruction flow monitoring on Sylvan Avenue in late April, obtaining data for several significant rainfall events.  Removal of existing pavement began in late May with an anticipated completion of the porous pavement by mid July of this year.  The monitoring will continue for roughly 18 months.  NVOC will present data to the city at 6 month intervals.   This performance data will assist

NVOC in quantifying the actual volume reductions achievable through the installation of porous pavement and further our water/energy nexus work.