[en] Bioremediation generally involves stimulating microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) to grow and in the process of growth, degrade hazardous waste. A variety of contaminant compounds can be readily biodegraded by both pure cultures of bacteria and by bacteria under field conditions. These compounds include petroleum and its distillates (gasoline, diesel fuel, etc.), aromatic hydrocarbons (BTEX and PAHS), PCBs (most congeners), chlorinated aeromatics (TCE and dichloroethane) and chlorinated aromatics (polychlorophenols and chlorobenzene). While the metabolic pathways for biodegradation are fairly distinct for each class of contaminants, the pathways generally converge on a central metabolite, acetyl-CoA, which can then be directly converted to CO² or microbial biomass. Organic compounds are most rapidly degraded aerobically. SafeSoil is a proprietary additive and biotreatment process. The additive contains inorganic nutrients (primarily N and P) and organic nutrients (simple sugars, protein and more complex cometabolites) which, upon addition to soil, stimulate natural microbial (primarily bacterial) populations to grow and degrade the contaminants of interest. Field applications of SafeSoil at Channel Gateway Development Project in Marina del Rey, California, validated that the SafeSoil treatment process effectively reduced TPH and BTEX concentrations for petroleum-contaminated soils to below action levels in as few as 4 days; the median curing time was 14 days. Longer chain hydrocarbons required more time, up to 36 days for TPH. Aerobic soil bacterial populations increased up to five-fold in response to treatment and returned to near pretreatment levels soon after the contaminant level was depleted. Volatilization of organics was measured and was found to be insignificant when compared to the total contaminant load indicating that the majority of the hydrocarbon contaminants were removed by biological means