Pollution Engineering - November 2008 - (Page 7)

EDITOR'SDESK Professor Mother Nature While science has certainly provided great leaps in technology, there is still a lot that we can learn just by looking at natural occurrences. here is an old commercial from Chiffon margarine that ended with the line, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” However, I find it comforting to know that the old gal still has some life lessons to teach us if we just pay attention. The Giant Mine is a gold mine located in Yellowknife, capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. The mine contains over 230,000 metric tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust. This dust is water-soluble. Any water leaching through the site could transport arsenic to mix into the local waters. Current plans for the site call for circulating super-cooled liquids through the arsenic dust to keep it frozen in 15 underground chambers for an unspecified period of time. Scientists have discovered bacteria that had formed a biofilm on some of the wet, contaminated walls in some of the chambers. These tiny creatures were quite content to get their energy by consuming the arsenic. The bacteria can thrive in temperatures as low as 4°C. More study will be required to see if the bacteria could be used to treat the wastes at the site, but the group is excited about the many possibilities. Bacteria have been proven to treat a wide variety of contaminants in other environments. Meanwhile, Norma Alcantar, a biochemical engineer from the University of South Florida, recalled something her grandmother from north-central Mexico taught her. Grandma used to boil cactus to prepare the lobes of the prickly pear for salads and other dishes. The residual water from the process left a mucilage material that grandma then used to clear up water for drinking. Alcantar decided to study the coagulation process using the mucilage. She T “ Sometimes, all we need to do is look around to see what is already being done naturally. discovered that the materials not only worked to coagulate the suspended particles but additionally formed complexes with dissolved arsenic. The formed complexes were large enough that they were easily removed using a simple sand filter. Alcantar still has a lot of study ahead of her; she wants to define the best method to form the mucilage and what concentrations provide the most benefit. The point here is that academia and industry spend a lot of time and money trying to solve the problems we face. Sometimes, all we need to do is look around to see what is already being done naturally. PE ” Ro Roy Bigham is E Editor of Pollution Engineering. 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Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pollution Engineering - November 2008

Pollution Engineering - November 2008 Contents The Editor's Desk EnviroNews PE Events Legal Lookout Casebook Canada Environment Management The Green Files Waste Island Phase I ESAs and Vapor Intrusion Meeting the Mercury Target Wet ESPs - The Sky's the Limit Most Successful IFAT China Ever Thermoplastic to the Rescue Install a Trench Without Open Excavations Remediate Impacted Soils Without Accumulation of Metabolites Apply an Alternative to Wet ESP Solve These Common Pump Problems Minimize Risks Handling Ammonia Monitor International Regulatory Developments for Audits Skim Oil and Save Prevent Chemical Vapor Intrusion Spill Control and Containment Products Pumps and Systems Equipment PE Products Classified Marketplace Advertisers Index State Rules

Pollution Engineering - November 2008

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