Period Covered by the Report: December 1, 2002 to February 28, 2003
Date of Report: March 2003
EPA Grant Number: R827015-01-0
Title: Anaerobic Intrinsic Bioremediation of MTBE
Investigators: Joseph Suflita
Institution: University of Oklahoma
Research Category: Intrinsic bioremediation/natural attenuation
Project Period: March 1, 200 to February 28, 2003
MTBE biodegradation under anaerobic and aerobic conditions has been evaluated in sediment slurry incubations prepared with material collected from ten impacted sites. The initial assay of the incubations was conducted by Surbec-Art. As indicated in previous reports, biodegradation of MTBE in the presence of oxygen has been noted in seven of the ten samples. However, the anaerobic biodegradation of MTBE has not been detected in any of the samples except one. In this sample the activity was dependent on the presence of hydrogen amended as an experimental variable to the headspace of the incubations. The amount of degradation could not be correlated with more than methyl group removal. Therefore, we cannot conclude that there is a significant anaerobic fate process for MTBE beyond the simple methyl group cleavage.
A comprehensive review of the literature covering the aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation of MTBE in both the laboratory and the field has been prepared and submitted for publication as part of this project. While this review is attached as part of this final report, we specifically request that it not be placed on the IPEC or EPA web site since doing so may infringe on the copyright policy of the journal.