🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Jan05.205254.60138@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> wallacen@ColoState.EDU writes:
>I recall hearing on Chicken Noodle News that a bacterium (*Chlostridium*
>I suspect, they'll eat virtually anything, including those buried polystyrene
>bottles which were supposed to last ten thousand years and instead lasted
>five or so...) has been developed to help in some types of oil spills and
>was successfully used in a spill near Galveston a few years ago. Anyone
>know more about this?

Yes, a specially tailored microbe was used to "bioremediate" a small oil
spill in Galveston Bay a year or two ago.  It worked quite well.  In
fact, if the EPA and other groups had allowed it to be used earlier the
entire slick would have been eaten up while still in the bay.  It was
sprayed on a section of the slick that hit some wetlands.

The state of Texas has a stock of the bugs available at all times for
use on spills of reasonable size.  I have heard that if the cleanup of
the Exxon Valdez had not been such a political fiasco, they could have
used the microbes on it and significantly reduced the damage done.
There is substantial opposition to use of such microbes by certain
eco-idiot factions which has slowed their acceptance.  Such antics don't
go over well here in Texas, and they were unable to stop their use.


-- 
Edmund Hack - Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co. - Houston, TX
hack@aio.jsc.nasa.gov - I speak only for myself, unless blah, blah..
"You know, I think we're all Bozos on this bus."
"Detail Dress Circuits" "Belt: Above A, Below B" "Close B ClothesMode"