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- Title
Use of ground water in assessment of biodegradation potential in the subsurface.
- Authors
Thomas, J. M.; Lee, M. D.; Ward, C. H.
- Abstract
The use of ground water in lieu of soil to determine the biodegradation potential of organic pollutants in the subsurface was assessed. With one exception, the recovery of viable counts and mineralization of naphthalene in the ground waters, but not the soils, collected from boreholes at an abandoned creosote waste site suggest that ground water may contain a microflora not representative of the subsurface. In samples from an aviation fuel spill, the extent of benzene mineralization in aquifer material and well water (from a nearby monitoring well) was about the same, whereas mineralization of benzene in ground water (from the same borehole as the soil) was 4.5 times less after 28 d of incubation. Rates and extent of naphthalene mineralization and microbial numbers declined in samples of water collected after pumping 0, 3,6, and 9 well volumes from a well in a plume of creosote contamination. A method was developed by which a representative sample of ground water was collected by treating the well and proximate formation with 0.5% H2O2 for 24 h and then continuously pumping for a second 24 h before the sample was collected for experimental use. The data suggest that determination of the biodegradation potential of subsurface pollutants using ground water is tenuous unless precautions are taken to ensure the microflora is representative of the subsurface.
- Publication
Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry, 1987, Vol 6, Issue 8, p607
- ISSN
0730-7268
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/etc.5620060804