The focus is on: Reducing soil erosion and the delivery of suspended solids of soil and other origins into rivers, lakes and oceans; reducing hydrocarbon discharges picked up from roads and other surfaces into rivers, lakes and oceans; and recharging/reusing stormwater to replenish/augment natural groundwaters.
Conventional engineering technology to control such discharges centers on physical methods. Stormwater holding tanks allow solids to settle and be removed. Skimmers and/or booms remove floating oil for disposal in landfills. But, recent advances in biotechnology allow biotreatment to play an important in enhancing the performance of such systems while reducing costs- and in a much more environmentally sound manner!
Unfortunately, hydrocarbon residues when concentrated constitute a hazardous waste. This means that their disposal is governed by hazardous waste disposal regulations and, thus, elevated costs.
Unfortunately, hydrocarbon residues when concentrated constitute a hazardous waste. This means that their disposal is governed by hazardous waste disposal regulations and, thus, elevated costs. Oil residues floating on stormwater when concentrated in a floating boom or in a drum fed by a skimmer constitutes a hazardous waste. In addition, solids settled in stormwater runoff holding tanks may contain sufficient heavier-than-water hydrocarbon residues to create a hazardous waste classification for these solids when they are disposed of in a landfill.
Biotechnology can help. Hydrocarbon residues have been shown to be biodegraded in a wide variety of context (for example, petroleum refinery wastewater treatment systems, and leaking underground fuel storage tank bioremediations). Specialized, safe, naturally-occurring hydrocarbon degrading microbes have been isolated, preserved and combined into consortia that are capable of rapid degradation of fuels and other petroleum based compounds. These consortia have been widely used to reduce petroleum hydrocarbons and petrochemicals in industrial discharges.
Now, these microbes have been combined with natural, environmentally-sound petroleum absorbents in the form of a floating boom that combines absorption of the hydrocarbon residues in stormwater runoff containment systems with biodegradation of these residues. The BioBag from Bioscience, Inc. not only degrades much of the absorbed residues, but it also releases hydrocarbon-degrading microbes into the water captured in the containment to initiate degradation of dissolved organics and heavier-than-water hydrocarbons entrained in settled soils.
The combination of physical absorption and biodegradation not only render the captured water and solids much cleaner and better suited to recharge and reuse, but it also leaves the spent boom in a potentially non-hazardous classification for disposal purposes. Thus, the physical containment process for rainwater is made more effective and overall costs of containment and disposal of residues are reduced.
The BioBag is deployed inside stormwater runoff capture systems. It is tied off on the containment walls and replaced periodically as it becomes spent.
Contact us for more information!