Living and Breathing Science: Microbial Approach to Clean up of the Gulf Oil Spill

Naturally occurring, hydrocarbon-degrading, microbes are perhaps the best tools in our arsenal to clean up the oil that is currently polluting the tidal marshes, rivers and beaches of Louisiana. I am dismayed by the apparent lack of attention being paid to employing microbial agents in the fight to save the gulf coast from the devastating effects of the oil spill. One such microbial product called Biorem-2000 Oil Digester (produced in South Carolina) has been approved in several US states for use in oil clean up operations. For example, in the states of Utah and Georgia, Biorem is being injected into the ground at multiple sites where oil has contaminated ground water.

Please contact Dennis Woods of Industrial Fluids Management at DWoods@IndustrialFluidsManagement.com to discuss details of Biorem 2000 Oil Digester and approaches to employ it on the oil that is currently polluting the beaches and pristine wetlands of Louisiana. Bioremediation must be made a major component of the strategy.

A Tree More Than Any Other

A magnificent tree, estimated to be one thousand years old, grows on Johns Island, South Carolina. The Angel Oak is truly awe inspiring, having a trunk of enormous girth with furrowed bark and great limbs that reach down to enter the earth and rise up again. The grand oak draws countless visitors each year down a dusty dirt road to its home nestled among trees that are a tiny fraction of its age. If estimates are correct, the Angel Oak was beginning its life before the Crusades, before the Aztec and Inca civilizations existed and before the Vikings came to North America. It has endured earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, disease and escaped the axe. Over the decades it has enthralled all who have stood beneath its enormous canopy. This weekend we took my friend Bridget de Socio to Angel Oak. Seeing the tree she told my daughter Livia, “This tree wanted to be a tree more than any other”.