PHYTOREMEDIATION

Phytoremediation is the technical term used to describe the treatment of environmental problems through the use of plants. Certain plants are able to extract hazardous substances such as arsenic, lead and uranium from soil and water. One example is alpine pennycress, a plant which naturally accumulates high levels of cadmium and zinc from the environment. Alpine pennycress is therefore known as a hyperaccumulator of these metals, which in unnaturally high levels would be poisonous to many plants. Another example of a hyperaccumulator is the brake fern. This fern extracts arsenic from the soil at a much greater rate than other plants. This arsenic is stored in the fern's leaves at as much as 200 times that present in the soil, thus enabling effective and practical clean-up programs. Sunflowers were used to clean up uranium near Chernobyl. Other favorable phytoremediation plants include cattails, duckweed, hyacinth, pumpkins, willows and cottonwood. Breeding programs are powerful methods for enhancing natural tendencies of plant, or for introducing these tendencies into alternative types of plant which might be more suitable for the environmental conditions. CSS provides the full range of project planning, management and oversight for this innovative solution to site contamination.

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