Navy looks to bugs for cleanup task

The US Navy is about to step into bioremediation in a big way, using the largest naval fuel depot in the continental US as a test bed for better ways to clean oil-soaked soils. Craney Island, a 900-acre peninsula near Portsmouth, Va., has been the Navy's main East Coast fueling depot since World War II. In the next few weeks, a 15-acre site on the island will be transformed into the largest bioremediation experiment on the East Coast, say officials with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Atlantic Division, which is in charge of the cleanup for the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center at Norfolk, VA. The site is extremely contaminated with petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL), primarily ship bunker fuel, and it will be cleaned up under the Navy's Installation Restoration Program, says John Peters, a NAVFAC spokesman. Using naturally occurring bacteria, the contractor will churn and aerate the soil, add lime and fertilizers, bring the moisture level to 20% and allow the mix to open-quote bake close-quote for about four months