Groundwater cleanup: Biosorption

There are frequently a number of contaminants, including uranium, vanadium, strontium, and cadmium, in the groundwater and soil under mining sites. These metals are frequently present at toxic levels and are possibly carcinogenic. The hazardous metals that contaminate the groundwater come from mine tailings, waste rock, and chemicals left from mining and milling operations. Mine tailings are now stored in clay-lined beds; however, in the past, tailings were usually dumped into pits near the mine. Rainwater trickling down through the tailings in the pits carried the metals to the subsoil and eventually to the groundwater. A team of biotechnologists at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) are working on ways to use microorganisms to clean up groundwater contaminated by wastes from old uranium mines. INEL researchers known that microorganisms are found naturally in wastes from uranium mines, and that the microorganisms affect the rate at which uranium and other metals are dissolved into water