Bioremediation of Contaminated Sites in the Chilean Patagonia: A Complex Project Management Case Study

摘要

For years, the Chilean Patagonia, a region where the petroleum and sheep farming industries coexist, has been exploited for the extraction of hydrocarbons, an industrial process which has brought not only economic benefits to the region but also environmental impacts. The Petroleum National Enterprise - ENAP, a state-owned company, has exploited over 2500 wells on Magallanes as well as excavated a similar number of pits, contaminated sites where waste and solid crude from the extraction processes have been disposed on for decades. In 2005, ENAP assumed a responsible and voluntary commitment with the authorities and the community in order to contribute to the sustainability of the region by remedying a hundred percent of the contaminated sites associated to its processes. This project management involves coordinating a significant number of companies for sampling, characterising and cleaning up such pits by means of bioremediation, with the aim of reducing their environmental risks to the community and the environment.rnThe project started with the characterisation of a reduced number of pits with the objective of assessing their environmental condition in terms of heavy metals and hydrocarbon concentration levels. Thereafter, due to the absence of a domestic norm on contaminated sites, an international standard was agreed with the environmental authority. Subsequently, bioremediation pilots where developed to establish their feasibility reducing the contamination in relation to the agreed levels. Finally, once the pits had been classified according to their current contamination, bioremediation companies started their work on pits located on Tierra del Fuego Island and Posesion Camp, to the north of the Magellan Straight, with the aim of cleaning up all the pits by December 2008.