Navy bugs fight MTBE

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Microbes fight gas additive

Contamination: A combination of bacteria and oxygen shows promise in
cleaning up ground water polluted by MTBE.

By Timothy B. Wheeler
Baltimore Sun 
July 12, 2004

PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- Almost hidden by a low stockade fence, an
unassuming tangle of white plastic pipe and metal tanks on the parade
ground of a Navy base here could revolutionize cleanup of one of the
nation's most vexing environmental messes.

The West Coast home of the Seabees, Port Hueneme (why-KNEE-me) is a
major staging area for the naval engineers, with sprawling parking lots
for their vehicles and hardware. Like many military bases, this
1,600-acre complex sits above ground water that has been contaminated --
in this case with a mile-long plume of a gasoline additive called methyl
tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE.

Scientists say they hope their system -- which uses bacteria to devour
the chemical -- could trim millions of dollars and decades from the
current costly, time-consuming cleanups.

The foul-smelling MTBE got loose here in the late 1980s when 11,000
gallons of fuel leaked from underground tanks at the base exchange
service station.

...

for the entire article, see
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.ms.treat12jul12,0,5490201.story?coll=bal-health-headlines

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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