Sub-Surface Waste Management of Delaware Inc. (SSWM), a subsidiary of U.S. Microbics Inc., has developed a special blend of microbes and nutrients that can rapidly degrade perchlorates. California's governor this week signed into law two bills that require users of perchlorate during the past 53 years to report its use, storage or leaks and established a statewide database to track contamination.
Cleanup of perchlorates in soil and groundwater present a lucrative market opportunity in western states where Department of Defense contractors manufactured and produced various types of rocket fuels since WWII.
In the United States ammonium perchlorate is used as an oxidizer in solid rocket propellant; sodium perchlorate is used in slurry explosives and potassium perchlorate is used in road flares and air bag inflators. The U.S. EPA has identified perchlorate users and manufacturers in 44 states and releases in 18 states, estimating that perchlorate affects the drinking water of 15 million people in the United States (see www.epa.gov/safewater/ccl/perchlorate/perchlo.html).SSWM is developing specific applications for groundwater treatment of perchlorates through fluidized bed bioreactor and packed column bio-reactors and in-situ bio-augmentation. Over the past 6 months, SSWM has been working with major defense contractors to provide actual site groundwater and soil treatment work plans for applicable environmental regulatory agencies.
Bruce Beattie, CEO of SSWM stated, "Behzad Mirzayi, MS, P.E. our COO and chief engineer has been working closely with our fermentation center crafting a responsive blend of microbes or bacteria designed to optimize groundwater treatment systems to address the expansive perchlorate site cleanup opportunities in the western states. Major defense contractors are aggressively studying this problem and are seeking SSWM input for applicable regulatory cleanup solutions to help mitigate potential liabilities estimated to be over 1 billion dollars. We believe our proprietary biotechnology and engineering solutions for perchlorate cleanup represent a cost effective alternative approach to a major contamination problem."
Source: Sub-Surface Waste Management
