Remediation of Oil Spills By Growmate Humic Products.

Petroleum spills onto soil can lead to hydrocarbon migration into the soil profile, affecting soil physical structure by coating soil aggregates, thereby reducing and diverting water infiltration into the soil, obstructing air and water movement in the soil matrix, and reducing cation/anion ion exchange and soil water holding capacity. RemediAde is  a remediation agent for hydrocarbon hazardous wastes and is composed of solely organic and biodegradable products, including enzymes, nutrients, and humic acids. RemediAde is thought to accelerate microbial growth thereby fostering decomposition of hydrocarbons. RemediAde was tested for bioremediation effectiveness to determine candidacy for the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Contingency Plan Product Schedule. Three treatments for this experiment consisted of the following: 1) a control comprised of 500 mg Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil plus 100 ml of seawater, 2) a standard nutrient solution with 500 mg ANS crude oil plus 100 ml of seawater, and 3) the RemediAde product (2 ml applied on each of days 2, 3 and 7 of incubation) and a standard nutrient solution with 500 mg ANS crude oil plus 100 ml of seawater. Samples were incubated for 28 d. On day 7 and 28, a 1 mL aliquot of each sample was extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Total alkane compounds concentrations remained relatively for the control throughout the 28 day incubation period, whereas for both the nutrient solution and Remediade product treatments total alkane concentration was dramatically reduced at day 7 by 69% and 91%, respectively, and at day 28 by 99% and 98%. Lighter alkanes were absent from all treatments. The nutrient solution and Remediade treatments were not statistically different in performance for reducing total alkane concentration. However, aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations produced much different results. Throughout the 28 day incubation, the control and nutrient solution treatments maintained similar aromatic compounds concentrations, as did the  Remediade treatment for the first seven days. Between day 7 and 28, the aromatic compounds concentrations were reduced by 94% from initial conditions with the Remediade treatment, being significantly less than the other two treatments. Only the Remediade product treatment proved effective at reducing contamination of both hydrocarbon chemical groups in lab controlled conditions. When taken to the field to test on oil contaminated soil, these results for the Remediade product were replicated. At an oil spill site having a battery of tanks and using similar RemediAde product application rates and timings as for the lab evaluation, RemediAde application resulted in an 82% reduction of hydrocarbons from initial concentrations (54,426 mg kg^-1) after 14 days and a 99.9% reduction after 28 days. At an oil drilling site where soil was contaminated at an initial hydrocarbon concentration of 8,470 mg kg^-1,  RemediAde treatment reduced the level to 6 mg kg^-1 (99.9%) after 14 days. With oil-contaminated water with an initial hydrocarbon concentration of 245,168 mg kg^-1,  RemediAde treatment procedures reduced the hydrocarbon contamination by 67.5% (79,688 mg kg^-1) after 14 days, and by 99.0% (2404 mg kg^-1) after 28 days. Both lab and multiple field tests have demonstrated that a commercial humic-based product can significantly reduce environmental hydrocarbon contamination.