January 12, 2009 at 1:16 pm by Sarah Irani
Thirsty Trees Drink Up Contaminated Water from Superfund Site
Trees ““ is there anything they can’t do? Besides producing oxygen, preventing erosion, providing wood and fiber for human use and mopping up carbon dioxide, trees are being used to clean up contaminated water from Superfund sites. It’s called phytoremediation.
Just 25 miles south of Chicago, a sizable supply of nuclear waste is buried underground, compliments of Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne has used extraction wells to pump tainted wastewater to a treatment plant, but underground waterways change direction all the time, and besides, why …
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