While science has certainly provided great leaps in technology, there is still a lot that we can learn just by looking at natural occurrences.
There 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 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
RoyBigham roy@pollutionengineering.com Roy D. Bigham has been the editor of Pollution Engineering since 2002. Bigham attended Eastern Michigan University where
he majored in chemistry and computer science with an associates degree
in mathematics. He has worked as a laboratory technician at a research
laboratory, managed an electroplating operation and an associated
analytical laboratory. He spent three years overseeing environmental
operations of five domestic and five overseas operations for a major
manufacturer in the Detroit area. He then managed a field services
department for an environmental analytical laboratory before moving on
to a position as an environmental engineer for a construction
aggregates company.
Bigham
won a design award for a waste water treatment system for a landfill in
the Detroit area from the State Chamber of Commerce. He has been active
in the environmental field since 1980.
|
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
