Production, transport, and application of pesticides and pesticide concentrates often result in soil contamination. Sorption to soil particulate matter and toxicity to microorganisms further result in the environmental persistence of these compounds; thus, the soils are not readily remediated by typical solid phase biotreatment (e.g. Iand farming). No currently existing bioremediation strategies are available that result in destruction of these sorbed pesticides, even though many of them are known to be biodegradable. The purpose of this study is to use an innovative remedial technique, based on a combination of currently existing unit processes, elaborated specifically to address pesticide contaminated soils. The techniques include several wsoil washingt processes and slurry biotreatment. A sample of pesticide-contaminated soil from a distribution facility will be used for the study. The soil is contaminated with cyanazine, carbofuran, metolachlor and trifluralin. The process will be evaluated based on relative removal rates and extents of the various compounds through each of the unit processes. The goal is to determine the potential of the overall process as a remedial technique for pesticides.Applications:The results from this work are expected to show whether these techniques can remove soil bound pesticides and whether the resulting effluent stream can be biotreated. The study will evaluate unit processes that can be combined and optimized to result in a new treatment process that is specifically developed for pesticide-contaminated soils. After a pilot demonstration (in phase II) these results will presumably have direct commercial application for the bioremediation of pesticide-contaminated soil.
