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EVALUATION OF SULFATE-REDUCING BACTERIA TO PRECIPITATE MERCURY FROM CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER
Citation:
ABDRASHITOVA, S., R. DEVEREUX, W. J. DAVIS-HOOVER, S. AIKELDIEVA, A. KURMANBAEV, AND Z. TIEULINA. EVALUATION OF SULFATE-REDUCING BACTERIA TO PRECIPITATE MERCURY FROM CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER. Biotechnology: Theory and Practice (in Russian). National Center for Biotechnology, Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, Kazakhstan, 3(May-June):78-85, (2008).
Impact/Purpose:
Contaminated grounds research in Kazakhstan.
Description:
Several regions in the Republic of Kazakhstan are contaminated with mercury as a result of releases from industrial plants. Operations at an old chemical plant, "Khimprom", which produced chlorine and alkali in the 1970s - 1990s, resulted in significant pollution of groundwater and surface water with soluble mercury compounds near a suburb of the city of Pavlodar. This mercury contamination poses a considerable risk to teh local population and the environment. The objective of this tudy was to investigate the efficacy of using sulphate-reducing bacteria to precipitate mercury from contaminated groundwater, without forming methyl mercury, as an avenue to mitigate the contamination groundwater at teh Khimprom plant site. Sulfate-reducing bacteria were cultured from soil collected at the site and tested in laboratory experiments. The efficiency of two strains, IMV8a and IMV12, identified as similar to Desulfotomaculum spp., to precipitate soluble mercury was investigated. In experiments conducted at 4 degrees C and at 28 degrees C using media with acetate as teh carbon and energy source, mercury was precipitated from the media without forming methyl mercury. Acetate-utilizing sulfate-reducing baceria might provide a basis for the biological removal of mercury from groundwater, however much additional research remains to assure it would be a safe process.