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Microbes in the Pits |
| Section: NATURAL SCIENCE / AT THE EDGE |
| Author: Jo Davison |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2004 |
| Size: 2,307 Words, 15,032 Characters |
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As night falls on the slopes of some of Colorado's premier ski resorts, snowmaking machines replace skiers and under clear, starlit skies snow begins to fall heavily on the trails. In the morning, skiers will know the thrill of plowing though fresh powder.
The water that forms the snow comes not from the sky but from rivers running through the valleys far below. If the water has been taken from a river contaminated with acid mine drainage, its load of toxic metals will be spread onto the slopes, potentially becoming a new threat to the environment.
Acid water draining from abandoned mines is a national and global problem. The increasing need for fossil fuels such as coal, and for metals, requires both strip and deep mining. Historically, when the seams of coal and metals were no long...
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...ly an example of a multitude of potential applications for microbial consortia. Chemical treatments give us sludge and stream waters that retoxify. Microbial treatments give us clean freshwater and they recycle metals for future generations.
Microbial consortia aren't new. Mother Nature has been using them for millennia. Biology, not chemistry, has always been the answer and always will be.
(812 of 15,032 characters)
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