Using a Variety of Microbial Analyses in Different Media to Quantify Remedial Effectiveness, from qPCR to qPCR/RT-PCR to QuantArray

摘要

Background/Objectives. Tainted fill containing a variety of chlorinated solvents was erroneously used to backfill the excavation of a fuel oil tank. Post tank removal groundwater results revealed the unexpected presence of solvents in groundwater, particularly tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) amongst other chlorinated ethanes. Since this was a well disturbed, aerated “fresh source”, very little biodegradation activity was occurring. Baseline chemical, geo-chemical and microbial assessment that confirmed: (1) ethene was not detected; indicating PCE was not completely reduced to ethene under the conditions and time frame tested; (2) dehalobacter (dhb) were detected but dehalococcoides (dhc) were below the detection limit in many instances; (3) sulfate concentrations were high in all monitoring wells; and (4) iron and sulfate reducing bacteria were present at the highest numbers, indicating possible competition between dechlorinators and sulfate reducers.