Benevolent bacteria

 
Published: Tuesday 15 August 1995

The US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, has recruited an army of microorganisms to clean soils and underground water tainted with nitrate and carbon tetrachloride - an industrial solvent that is a suspected carcinogen.

In this bioremediation process, native bacteria which can be coaxed into degrading contaminants are energised. A food source, in this case vinegar, spurs the microbes to eat the carbon tetrachloride and other contaminants. The scientists hope to clean up in this manner a trillion litres. of groundwater contaminated with carbon tetrachloride.

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