Phytoremediation and its importance to our future
Phytoremediation, is the process of decontaminating soil using plants, trees, and/or algae. Plants take up heavy metals and other contaminants in their roots, shoots, and leaves, and bring contaminants to the surface. Phytoremediation can also be used to clean up mining waste such as arsenic and other heavy metals. It has also been used to remove Trichloroethylene (TCE) which is a man-made chlorinated solvent, used primarily to remove grease from metal parts and textiles and is one of the most common pollutants of groundwater. It can help clean up various herbicides like atrazine, explosives like TNT, petroleum hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).Various ways that this happens are through the microbial population that exists in the root zones of plants, and also through the plant biomass itself. Various methods are described below.
Arsenic and heavy metal toxicity in soil and water is becoming a larger problem across the globe and causes significant health damage to people living in developing and third world countries. Many of these countries cannot afford the technology necessary for clean up, and phytoremediation is an affordable and sustainable option. If we can use phytoremediation to help clean up waste sites, we can ensure clean water and a cleaner environment for future generations. Our land, air, and water are a series of interconnected systems, making it hard to isolate contaminants. The more research that is done on phytoremediation, the more it will be able to be offered as a step in the right direction. Many farmers use groundwater to water their crops and to feed their animals. If we continue practices, like mining, that have the potential to contaminate our water sources, we also need to continuously look for solutions to keep contaminants out of our food and water supplies.
