Published in J. Nat. Resour. Life Sci. Educ. 33:51–53 (2004). http://www.JNRLSE.org © American Society of Agronomy 677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA OVER THE PAST FEW DECADES, pollution has become a major threat to human and environmental health. Billions of acres of otherwise arable land lie uncultivated because of contaminants in the soil. However, remediation of contaminated land with ...

A public attitudes survey was conducted in neighborhoods adjacent to a radioactively contaminated site whose remediation is now under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy's Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The survey's purpose was to ascertain levels of actual and desired public involvement in the remediation process; to identify health, environmental, economic...

In order to test the suitability of using Brassica juncea for the remediation by phytoextraction of soils contaminated with U and Ra, the transfer process to the plant was studied. A soil with high natural uranium mineralization was used for the study. When the soil was not manipulated, the transfer factor (TF) was 0.24 ± 0.02 and 1.5 ± 0.3 for U and Ra, respectively. These low values, especial...

A two phases process consisting of a soya lecithin (SL)-based soil washing process followed by the photocatalytic treatment of resulting effluents was developed and applied at the laboratory scale in the remediation of an actual-site soil historically contaminated by 0.65 g/kg of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Triton X-100 (TX) was employed in the same process as a control surfactant. SL and...

Recently problems relating to environmental pollution and the need to protect and preserve the environment from further deterioration has drawn increasing research attention. The goal of any remediation based on soil amendments is to achieve maximum reduction in the bioavailability of heavy metals by immobilization in soils. Modern remediation approaches increasingly focus on in situ environmen...

The use of low-cost and environmental safety amendments for the in situ immobilization of heavy metals has been investigated as a promising method for contaminated soil remediation. Natural materials and waste products from certain industries with high captive capacity of heavy metals can be obtained and employed. Reduction of extractable metal concentration and phytotoxicity could be evaluated...

Remediation of soils contaminated with petroleum is a challenging task. Four different bioremediation strategies, including natural attenuation, biochar amendment, phytoremediation with ryegrass, and a combination of biochar and ryegrass, were investigated with greenhouse pot experiments over a 90-day period. The results showed that planting ryegrass in soil can significantly improve the remova...

The activities of plants and plant/microbial associations may offer a viable means of accomplishing the in situ remediation of contaminated soils. Two uses of plants for phytoremediation are reported here. In one set of studies, the ability of plants to foster degradative microorganisms was investigated. Results indicated that the degradation of several chlorinated pesticides increased in rhizo...

Anthropogenic activities are resulting in an increase of the use and extraction of heavy metals. Heavy metals cannot be degraded and hence accumulate in the environment, having the potential to contaminate the food chain. This pollution threatens soil quality, plant survival and human health. The remediation of heavy metals deserves attention, but it is impaired by the cost of these processes. ...