Microbial ecology of a chromium contaminated Super Fund site

Microbial ecology of a chromium contaminated Super Fund site

Chromium -- Biodegradation

Pseudomonas -- Biotechnology

Soil remediation

Haney, Weaver Ballou

2005

O'Connell, Sean

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

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Hexavalent chromium, Cr 6+, is known to be carcinogenic in humans. The primary source of Cr 6+ in the environment is anthropogenic. Reducing chromium in the environment to its less soluble, less biologically available trivalent state, Cr 3+, is an accepted remediation method. Several species of bacteria are known to have the ability to reduce Cr 6+ to Cr 3+. The purpose of this study was to isolate and characterize several species of chromium reducing bacteria from an environment that they were likely to inhabit. The site chosen for this study was a decommissioned ferrochrome production facility in North Charleston, SC. This site is an EPA Superfund Site on the national priorities list. Cr 6+ levels on the site soil were reported to exceed 23 mg/kg. Soil pH as high as pH 10 was reported for this site. Soil samples were taken and bacteria were cultivated by enrichment culturing in media containing Cr 6+ at pH7 and pH10. Pure cultures were obtained by spread plating and re-streaking. The isolates were tested for alkalophilicity and molecular methods were used to identify the isolates. Finally, the isolates were tested for the ability to reduce chromium. Three isolates, MacPH10.3, MacPH7.4, and MacPH10.1 were found to have the ability to reduce chromium. All three of the chromium reducing isolates were closely related to the genus Pseudomonas. The presence of chromium reducing bacteria in the soil may make it possible to perform bioremediation on this site.

2014-04-28

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