Degradation of Phenolic Contaminants in Ground Water by Anaerobic Bacteria: St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Abstract

Coal‐tar derivatives from a coal‐tar distillation and wood‐treating plant that operated from 1918 to 1972 at St. Louis Park, Minnesota contaminated the near‐surface ground water. Solutions of phenolic compounds and a water‐immiscible mixture of polynuclear aromatic compounds accumulated in wetlands near the plant site and entered the aquifer. The concentration of phenolic compounds in the aqueous phase under the wetlands is about 30 mg/1 but decreases to less than 0.2 mg/1 at a distance of 430 m immediately downgradient from the source. Concentrations of naphthalene (the predominant polynuclear compound in the ground water) and sodium (selected as a conservative tracer) range from about 20 mg/1 and 430 mg/1 in the aqueous phase at the source to about 2 mg/1 and 120 mg/1 at 430 m downgradient, respectively. Phenolic compounds and naphthalene are disappearing faster than expected if only dilution were occurring. Sorption of phenolic compounds on aquifer sediments is negligible but naphthalene is slightly sorbed. Anaerobic biodegradation of phenolic compounds is primarily responsible for the observed attenuation. Methane was found only in water samples from the contaminated zone (2‐20 mg/1). Methane‐producing bacteria were found only in water from the contaminated zone. Methane was produced in laboratory cultures of contaminated water inoculated with bacteria from the contaminated zone. Evidence for anaerobic biodegradation of naphthalene under either field or laboratory conditions was not obtained.

Semivolatile organic (GC-MS) and inorganic analyses of groundwater samples during the hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation (HPO) field test in Visalia, CA, 1997

“…An example of a physical alteration would be the preferential loss of more soluble compounds to the groundwater (Johansen et al, 1997), and an example of a chemical alteration would be the chemical oxidation that occurs at extremely slow rates under ambient conditions but can be greatly accelerated by steam injections (Knauss et al, 1998a;Leif et al, 1998). An example of a biochemical alteration would be the selective utilization of certain types of creosote compounds by microorganisms (Erlich et al, 1982;Mueller et al, 1991).…”

In-Situ Groundwater Treatment Technology Using Biodegradation

“…Some examples include chloroand bromobenzoates (Horowitz et al, 1983;Suflita et al, 1983); benzene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and toluene (Wilson et al, 1986a); phenolic compounds, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, and coal-tar distillates at a former woodtreating facility in Minnesota (Ehrlich et al, 1982); and eleven aromatic lignin derivatives (Healy Jr. and Young, 1982).…”

“…Most early microbiological studies sought to determine the ability of a pure microbial culture to degrade a single substrate. Although pure culture studies have been useful in the investigation of basic microbial functions, recent laboratory-scale systems have emphasized the use of mixedcultures of microorganisms in aquifer material under more realistic environmental conditions (Ehrlich et al, 1982;Herbes and Schwall, 1978;Kuhn et al, 1985;Lee et al, 1984;Parsons et al, 1984;Parsons and Lage, 1985;Pritchard and Bourquin, 1984;Spain et al, 1980;Wilson and Wilson, 1985). Still, there are problems associated with the use of mixed-culture systems.…”

Ground-water contamination by crude oil at the Bemidji, Minnesota, research site; US Geological Survey Toxic Waste--ground-water contamination study

“…2 Geology Department, Lafayette College. chemical and biochemical degradation of the petroleum (Van der Waarden and others, 1977;Ehrlich andothers, 1982, 1983). The petroleum and by-products may significantly alter water chemistry by mobilizing metals bound to exchangeable sites on clay minerals, behaving as a source for trace constituents and nutrients, and modifying rates of dissolution of aquifer sediments.…”