REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
BIOREMEDIATION CONSORTIUM

Progress Report
Fourth Quarter 2002

Introduction

The Bioremediation of Chlorinated Solvents Consortium is one of the six active Action Teams under the Remediation Technologies Development Forum (RTDF). The Bioremediation Consortium was established in 1993 as the result of a shared interest in developing in situ bioremediation technologies to degrade chlorinated solvents in soils and ground water. Consortium members include numerous industrial companies, universities, the EPA, the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Energy (DOE).

This report documents progress of the Bioremediation of Chlorinated Solvents Consortium during the fourth quarter of 2002.

Accomplishments

  1. The Consortium has been conducting a field demonstration of co-metabolic bioventing of TCE (with DNAPL ganglia present) at Operable Unit 2, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Injections of propane co-substrate began in August 2000, and field work was completed by Summer 2002. Data analysis is underway. The Consortium is also developing a laboratory treatability protocol for bioventing and a model and users guide to help predict performance of bioventing based on site-specific conditions.
  2. At the Bell Aerospace/Textron Site in Niagara Falls, New York, the Consortium is studying intrinsic biodegradation of a DNAPL source area in fractured bedrock. A final sampling event is planned for early 2003. The Consortium is developing a detailed groundwater flow and contaminant fate and transport model for the site to assist in understanding contaminant fate and transport through fractured media.
  3. A new publication is available on the results of field demonstrations of accelerated anaerobic bioremediation via bioaugmentation to treat chloriated ethenes in groundwater at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas: Field Demonstration of Successful Bioaugmentation to Achieve Dechlorination of Tetrachloroethene to Ethene, published in Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 36, No. 23, 2002 (Abstract | Purchase).
  4. EPA and the Consortium's industrial partners are in the process of revising the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for third-phase activities. As part of this phase, the Consortium is considering implementing a study of bioremediation of dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs), possibly at a site in the United Kingdom. Anyone who may be interested in participating in this work may contact one of the co-chairs through the RTDF web site.