Executive
Summary
This draft plan describes a ten-year program to develop the scientific understanding
needed to harness and develop natural and enhanced biogeochemical processes to
bioremediate contaminated soils, sediments and groundwater at DOE facilities. The
Office of Health and Environmental Research (OHER) developed this program plan,
with advice and assistance from DOE's Office of Environmental Management
(EM). The program builds on OHER's tradition of sponsoring fundamental research
in the life and environmental sciences and was motivated by OHER's and Office of
Energy Research's (OER's) commitment to supporting DOE's environmental
management mission and the belief that bioremediation is an important part of the
solution to DOE's environmental problems.
NATURAL AND ACCELERATED BIOREMEDIATION
Bioremediation is defined by the American Academy of Microbiology as "the use
of living organisms to reduce or eliminate environmental hazards resulting from
accumulations of toxic chemicals or other hazardous wastes" (Gibson and Sayler,
1992). The program addresses both natural bioremediation, which relies on
naturally occurring microbial and plant processes, and accelerated bioremediation,
which seeks to accelerate desirable processes through the addition of amendments
(e.g., nutrients, electron acceptors) or microorganisms (including GEMs), or by
manipulating physical, chemical, or hydrological processes. Bioremediation has been
implemented successfully for degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons and, to a
limited extent, degradation of explosives and chlorinated hydrocarbons, as well as
for immobilization of toxic trace metals. However, the effectiveness of
bioremediation cannot always be predicted reliably, due to numerous factors ranging
from lack of basic scientific knowledge to engineering limitations. More
importantly, few if any investigations have addressed bioremediation of the
contaminants present at DOE sites, where mixtures containing chlorinated
hydrocarbons, metals, radionuclides, PCBs, and inorganic contaminants are
common. Finally, there is general agreement among the research community that
field-based research is needed to realize the full potential of bioremediation.
THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The program was shaped by a team of scientists after a thorough review of
recommendations for research published over the past five years and an analysis of
related programs in DOE and other federal agencies. Several key themes guided the
scientific approach:
The key themes will be implemented through the seven interrelated program
elements described below.
Biotransformation and Biodegradation
Fundamental research in microbiology to elucidate the mechanisms of
biotransformation and biodegradation of complex contaminant mixtures.
Community Dynamics and Microbial Ecology
Fundamental research in ecological processes and interactions of biotic and abiotic
components of ecosystems to understand their influence on the degradation,
persistence, and toxicity of mixed contaminants.
Biomolecular Science and Engineering
Fundamental research in molecular and structural biology to enhance our
undestanding of bioremediation and improve the efficacy of bioremedial organisms
and identify novel remedial genes.
Biogeochemical Dynamics
Fundamental research in the dynamic relationships among in situ
geochemical, geological, hydrological, and microbial processes.
Assessment
Fundamental research in measuring and validating the biological and geochemical
processes of bioremediation.
Acceleration
Fundamental interdisciplinary research in flow and transport of nutrients and
microorganisms, focused on developing effective methods for accelerating and
optimizing bioremediation rates.
System Integration, Prediction, and
Optimization
Fundamental research to develop conceptual and quantitative methods for describing
community dynamics, biotransformation, biodegradation, and biogeochemical
dynamics processes in complex geologic systems.
MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE AND
IMPLEMENTATION
The program will be managed by OHER, with assistance from a program office. The
program office will be responsible for day-to-day management, scientific
coordination within and among program elements, scheduling of major activities at
the test sites, communication and data base management, and facilitating access to
the R&D shared infrastructure. Each field research center will have an on-site
manager who will be responsible for obtaining permits, developing and
implementing a site safety plan, day-to-day scheduling of field activities, and site
operations. Instrument managers will be identified for major laboratory
measurement facilities. Final management approval and oversight for all activities
will be retained by OHER. The program will also be supported by an interagency
steering committee to ensure coordination with complementary programs and
identify opportunities for leveraging scientific and infrastructure investments.
Research projects will be carried out by a science team consisting of DOE laboratory
scientists, academic investigators, researchers from other federal agencies, and
industry researchers. The scientific program will be funded primarily by competitive
proposals, regardless of the status of the principal investigator, be it university,
DOE laboratory, or industry. The program will seek to get the best talent available
to address the goals identified in the program elements.
The activities described above will be funded by OHER. As proposed by the team
developing this program, the approximate total budget over the life of the ten-year
program is $417M, of which 75% supports scientific effort and the remainder is
divided equally among equipment and operating expenses.
The startup and implementation of the program will begin in FY96. FY96 activities
will include: (1) broad announcement of the program to the research community and
DOE sites, (2) selection of the scientific team leaders, (3) formation of the initial
scientific team through a competitive process, (4) selection of the first field research
center, (5) evaluation of R&D shared infrastructure requirements, (6) identification
of ethical, legal, and social issues that must be addressed immediately, and
(7) identification of the interagency steering committee members.
Two types of peer review will be incorporated into the program management
plan programmatic peer review and project peer review. Programmatic peer
review will be used to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the program and how well
the program is achieving its goals. Project peer review will consist of conventional
scientific peer review of individual projects proposed by the principal investigators
of the program.
In addition to peer review, other performance measures will be used to evaluate
whether the program is successful. These will include quantity and quality of new
knowledge generated by the program, effectiveness of the interdisciplinary teams,
timely accomplishments of programmatic goals, application of knowledge or
techniques to bioremediation or to otherwise help solve DOE problems, and spin-off to other areas such as, pollution prevention, ecosystem studies, biomedical
applications, ecotoxicity, and human genome studies.
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