title: A safe, efficient and cost effective process for removing petroleum hydrocarbons from a highly heterogeneous and relatively inaccessible shoreline.
abstract: A rocky, intractable and highly heterogeneous, intertidal zone, was contaminated from a diesel fuel spill that occurred during refuelling of a grader used in road construction, on an operational mine's shiploading facility. A practical, cost-effective, and safer (to personnel by avoiding drilling and earthworks), and non-invasive sampling and remediation strategy was designed and implemented since the location and nature of the impacted geology (rock fill) and sediment, precluded conventional ex-situ and any in-situ treatment where drilling would be required. Enhanced biostimulation with surfactant, available N & P (which were highly constrained), and increased aeration, increased the degradation rate from no discernable change for 2 years post-spill, to 170 mg/kg/day; the maximum degradation rate after intervention. While natural attenuation was ineffective in this application, the low-cost, biostimulation intervention proved successful, allowing the site owner to meet their regulatory obligations. Petroleum hydrocarbons (aliphatic fraction) decreased from ∼20,000 mg/kg to <200 mg/kg at the completion of 180 weeks of treatment.
authors.affiliation: 5 Retreat Crescent, Sunbury 3429, Victoria, Australia. Electronic address: turlough.guerin@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Turlough F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Guerin
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005742:Gasoline; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D010578:Petroleum; D059392:Petroleum Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D005742:Gasoline; D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010578:Petroleum; D013501:Surface-Active Agents
keywords: Bioremediation; Commercial; Diesel; Inaccessible; Petroleum; Shoreline