[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I like the idea of bio remediation. Spray the oil slick owith bacteria, or introduce the bacteria in the contaminated sediment, let them chow down, recycle the bacteria in the food chain.

Since we know about the law of unintended consequences, I wonder about the types of by products these bacteria produce? I also wonder what happens when you spray them on blacktop. Do they digest the asphalt that holds the blacktop together?

[Wonder Warthog]

"Since we know about the law of unintended consequences, I wonder about the types of by products these bacteria produce? I also wonder what happens when you spray them on blacktop."

My wife used to do research in soil contaminant removal, and in one case of "bioremediation", they were trying "bugs" that would eat chlorinated hydrocarbons. And the bugs were indeed eating the chlorinated hydrocarbons. The only problem is that they were also converting fully saturated chlorocarbons (like perchloroethane) into vinyl chloride---which is far MORE toxic than the original material.