Reproduced with permission of Firehouse.com:
Bacteria Eat AZ Fuel Spill
HEATHER CASEY
Firehouse.Com News
After a fuel spill Feb. 19, Tucson [AZ] firefighters cleaned up the highway by spraying it with
billions of diesel-eating bacteria.
The Bacillus bacteria used on I-10 digest diesel and other hydrocarbons, breaking them
down into carbon dioxide and water.
"It saves us a ton of money in disposal fees," said Tucson Fire Department spokesman Joe
Gulotta. "If we can have this micro-organism eat it, we don’t have to go through and pick it up."
This clean-up process, known as bioremediation, degrades harmful or hazardous materials into less harmful or benign components. It has been used at high-profile spills, such as the recent oil spill off the Galapagos Islands and the oil well fires in Kuwait after the Persian Gulf War.
The accident on I-10 caused one vehicle’s fuel tank to rupture and dump about 50 gallons of diesel fuel onto the highway, where cars spread it for about half a mile. "Vehicles were slipping and sliding almost like they were on ice," Gulotta said. After shutting down the highway and removing the disabled vehicles, the fire department had to get the road in
safe condition.
Gulotta said they couldn’t hose down the highway because then the fuel would contaminate the ground water. The old-fashioned way of cleaning up spills is to put sand
on top of them and then to pick everything up, but sand isn’t naturally absorbent, and can be dangerous on the highway, Gulotta said. "It’ s like having little marbles all over the
road. It doesn’t stay on the road and becomes a bigger hazard."
Eric Lamar, director of training and education for the IAFF, said bioremediation is rare for fire departments. "It’s much more common for fire departments these days to put down a clay-based absorbent, and then some kind of state or private service picks up the absorbent and disposes of it," he said.
Lamar said he can imagine bioremediation becoming more common, because it could be favorable when a spill’s location makes it difficult to pick up with absorbents, or when a spill occurs on a minor roadway.
Because the bioremediation process isn’t as fast as absorption, it may not be the best choice for spills on major highways. "When time is of the essence, you’re still going to prefer absorbing it," Lamar said.
If traffic is closed down on a major highway, the economic impact on that area can be as severe as the environmental impact of the fuel spill, Lamar said. Plus, you have the added risk that the slow down will cause additional accidents.
The bacteria product used for bioremediation is inexpensive enough that other Tucson city vehicles, such as garbage trucks, carry it as well, Gulotta said. "The entire city uses this for spill mitigation," he said.
There are a variety of bioremediation products, but Tucson uses one called Micro-Blaze Emergency Liquid Spill Control made by Verde Environmental, Inc.
William L. Scogin, president of Verde Environmental, Inc., said the agencies that use his product are predominantly located in the South and Southwest because the company is based in Houston, Texas.
The Tucson FD was the first department in Arizona to start using the bioremediation process in 1994.
Gulotta said the department had never heard of it until they were approached by a marketer for Micro-Blaze.
After the bacteria finished eating the fuel Tuesday, firefighters spread a powdery, clay-like substance on the highway for better traction.
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