Project Information

Title: Bioremediation Technologies - FY10 Field Work 070836-B

Project Year and Number: 2010: 070836-B

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: None

Principal Investigator (PI): Michel Boufadel (Temple University)

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract: This proposed additional work will help address two important questions raised by the field work done in 2009. First, there is some question about whether the beaches had been restored to their normal, undisturbed state at the time the 2009 field work was conducted. The lithium tracer investigations conducted in 2009 occurred approximately two months after the excavation and refilling of pits on the beaches in which the delivery equipment was and monitoring wells were installed. Information at that time had led us to conclude that the beaches had resettled to their normal state within two months, and we began delivery and measurement of the tracer thereafter. Using the same protocols employed in 2009 with the equipment installed in 2009, which will have been in place for over a year, would definitively address this question. If the results obtained in 2010 are substantially the same as those obtained in 2009, this would confirm the 2009 data on beach characteristics (including the rate and distance of travel of chemicals through the beach strata) and would add credence to the possibility of delivering bioremediation chemicals to the sequestered lingering oil using this type of equipment. Conversely, if results in 2010 show substantially reduced travel of the lithium tracer through the beach strata, that might suggest that this technology would not be effective for delivery of remediation chemicals to sequestered lingering oil. Any differences between the 2010 data and the 2009 data would be important because we expect that bioremediation using this kind of technology would take place over a matter of months (rather than weeks), possibly in several successive field seasons, post-installation of the delivery systems.


Proposal: View (2,073 KB)

Reports:
Final Report: Not available. For current status, please contact us.

Publications from this Project: None Available