Project Summary

Title: Indirect microbial alteration of reducible metal ions

Period: October 1, 2000 – September 30, 2003

Goals: Mixtures of metallic and radioactive contaminants in soil and groundwater constitute a major environmental problem. For example, Cr, Sr, Tc, tritium and nitrate have been found in the groundwater of the 100 Area at the Hanford site, while other DOE sites, including the INEEL, have uranium contamination. These metallic and radioactive contaminants pose a significant environmental hazard because they are typically highly mobile and exhibit high levels of toxicity. Hence, cost-effective technologies must be developed which can be used to remediate contaminated soils and ground waters. Several physical and chemical methods have been developed for treating such contaminants. Unfortunately, each has associated implementation problems. Our study team will investigate direct and indirect microbial reduction and subsequent immobilization of dissolved metal ions as one potential method to circumvent the problems associated with such physical/chemical treatment systems. This project addresses microbial alteration of heavy metal and radionuclide partitioning at mineral surfaces. The use of Dissimilitory Metal Reducing Bacteria (DMRB) to form redox-reactive zones in the subsurface (i.e. zones of microbially-reduced ferrous iron) which subsequently can reduce and immobilize heavy metals dissolved in flowing groundwater will be studied.


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