Abstract

In 1998, under the sponsorship of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), EPA and Green Mountain Laboratories, Inc. (GML) agreed to carry out a Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) project to evaluate the effectiveness of GML's bioremediation process for the treatment of soils contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) at the Beede Waste Oil/Cash Energy Superfund site in Plaistow, New Hampshire.

The treatment process involved inoculation and augmentation of the PCB-contaminated soils with bulk microbial inoculum and nutrients, and allowing the microbes to aerobically degrade the PCBs. The bulk inoculum was produced on site by the developer using:

• Animal feed-grade oatmeal as the substrate
• Shredded pine needles, which provided certain specific co-metabolite compounds
• Nutrients
• A proprietary consortium of microorganisms capable of degrading the PCBs to their eventual endpoints (carbon dioxide and mineral halides)

The results of the field evaluation, which are based on the data collected from the treatability study conducted in the third quarter of 1998, indicate no removal or degradation of the PCBs. In earlier laboratory tests, GML had used concentrated pine extract to provide the co-metabolite compounds, whereas, for the field study it used shredded pine needles. At the end of the field treatability study, based on its own observations and data, GML concluded that it may have inadvertently made some fundamental errors in the production and application of the bulk inoculum. Subsequently, the SITE program and the NHDES agreed to give GML another opportunity to demonstrate its technology's capability in degrading PCB in the Beede site soil, but at a much smaller laboratory scale.

In September 2000, GML carried out a limited number of preliminary bench-scale tests, at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, to reestablish the viability of its process. At the conclusion of the bench-scale tests, GML conceded that at best the tests were inconclusive and at worst had failed. The project was terminated at that time.

Contact

Vincente Gallardo

See Also

Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation

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