Environment - Award-winning recipe

Groundwater contaminants at Dover (Del.) Air Force Base are proving no match for a concoction formulated by Environmental Sciences Division researchers Aleisa Bloom, George DeLong and a team in charge of cleaning up the Superfund site. In fact, the 102,000-gallon mixture of water, sodium lactate, emulsified vegetable oil and nutrients injected at 53 locations at multiple depths has placed the clean-up more than two years ahead of schedule. This and other remediation efforts at Dover recently earned the base the coveted Environmental Restoration Program of the Year Award from the Department of Defense. While various approaches can be effective, Bloom noted that the accelerated anaerobic bioremediation of tetrachloroethene and trichloroethene has exceeded their expectations. Funding for the effort is provided by DOD.