Research Product

The criteria for successful implementation of bioremediation technologies are often poorly understood, provoking problems or failures in field demonstrations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pursues its legislative mandate to protect human health and the environment by advancing the understanding, development, and application of bioremediation solutions to hazardous waste problems. The Agency's approach is a balance between basic research activities and engineering. The former leads to an understanding of biological degradation processes, and the latter yields practical applications of the underlying science to accomplish environmental cleanup. Successful bioremediation trials have the following components in common: characterization of the contaminated site, examination of the feasibility of enhancing in situ microbial populations, development of treatment technologies that target specific toxic chemicals or groups of chemicals, and development of treatment systems approapriate for the wastes, the site, and the treatment sequence. A trial is not complete without a determination of the level of risk reduction resulting from the treatment. The lack of validated scale-up information, the variability of contaminated field sites, and the potential for production of metabolites more toxic then parent chemicals complicate prediction of adverse ecological and human effects. Studies examining fate and effects of degradative microorganisms, target chemicals, and metabolic by-products allow information from risk assessments to alert environmental managers and regulators to potential difficulties resulting from the use of this powerful technology.