Bioremediation of petroleum spills in Arctic and Sub-Arctic environments

Details

• Creators:
  Travis, Michael D.
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Arctic, Sub-Arctic Bioremediation Contaminants Environment Environmental Impacts Groundwater Oil Spills Petroleum Pipelines Soils Supertankers Tundra

  More +
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  Alaska
• Corporate Publisher:
  Alaska. Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
• Abstract:
  Unaided rehabilitation of petroleum spills can affect tundra soils for up to 30 years. Effects of oil spills on Sub-Arctic forest soils last for at least a decade. Natural remediation is slow because of the cold dominated climate and short growing season. This persistence was documented in two experimental 2,000 gallon spills of crude oil on a Black Spruce forest north of Fairbanks, Alaska. One spill was applied in winter and the other in summer. In both sites all oil saturated vegetation died after one growing season. Soil temperatures increased from the lack of vegetative cover and the dark stained ground. After two years, the active layer increased from 19 in. to 36 in. After ten years, significant amounts of oil could still be found in the soil and vegetative growth was still inhibited. These examples convey the need for developing cost effective technologies to remediate petroleum spills in northern environments. This paper investigates the possibilities of using bioremediation to clean up hydrocarbon contamination of soils and groundwater in both Arctic and Sub-Arctic regimes. (21 p.)
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:3c8f9ceded96ddae4f081b3730bd5e7081f941d7f69812e41ce2ae6def57a6c0
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/14685/dot_14685_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.30 MB ]