Biofouling of Contaminated Ground‐Water Recovery Wells: Characterization of Microorganisms

Abstract

The taxonomy and physiology of microorganisms isolated from contaminated ground‐water recovery wells prone to biofouling are characterized for an industrial site in Rochester, New York. Principal aquifer contaminants include acetone, cyclohexane, dichloroethane, dichloromethane, 1,4–dioxane, isopropanol, methanol, and toluene. These contaminants represent a significant fraction (up to 95%) of the total organic carbon in the ground water. Ground‐water samples from 12 recovery wells were used to isolate, quantify, and identify aerobic and anaerobic bacterial populations. Samples from selected wells were also characterized geochemically to assess redox conditions and availability of essential and trace nutrients. Dominant bacteria, listed in order of descending numbers, including sulfate‐reducers (Desulfovibrio desulfuricans), anaerobic heterotrophs (Actinomyces, Bacteriodes, Bacillus, Agrobacterium), aerobic heterotrophs (Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Nocardia, Citrobacter), iron‐oxidizers (Gallionellaferruginea, Crenothrixpolyspora), iron‐reducers (Shewanella), and sulfur‐oxidizers (Thiobacillusferrooxi‐dans). Fungi were also recovered in low numbers. Both aerobic and anaerobic heterotrophs were able to utilize all principal contaminants as sole carbon and energy sources except 1,4–dioxane. The prevalence of heterotrophic bacteria and their ability to use the available anthropogenic carbon suggests that aerobic and anaerobic heterotrophs contribute to the biofouling of wells at this site, in addition to the often cited fouling due to iron‐oxidizing bacteria and sulfate‐reducing bacteria.

The Impact of Carbon Tetrachloride on an Anaerobic Methanol-Degrading Microbial Community

“…Clostridium species can cometabolically degrade CT (Galli and McCarty 1989a) as well as M. barkeri (Novak et al 1998). It is expected that M. lacustris can also degrade CT cometabolically, as it is expected that all methanogens can do (Krone et al 1989a (Taylor et al 1997), but conditions in the columns were anaerobic. D. metallireducens can metabolize acetate and has been linked to iron and manganese reduction (Finneran et al 2002), but no link to CT biodegradation was found in the literature.…”

Biogeochemistry and Community Composition of Iron- and Sulfur-Precipitating Microbial Mats at the Chefren Mud Volcano (Nile Deep Sea Fan, Eastern Mediterranean)

“…However, they are often found in environments where Fe(II) and methane cooccur, such as groundwater springs. Additionally, there have been several reports of C. polyspora sheaths incrusted in Fe(III) (hydr)oxides (79,88). No 16S rRNA gene sequences recovered from the orange mat were similar to sequences of known Fe(II)-oxidizing species (e.g., sheath-forming Leptothrix spp., stalk-forming Gallionella spp., PV-1, and other organisms).…”

Thermal effects on microbial composition and microbiologically induced corrosion and mineral precipitation affecting operation of a geothermal plant in a deep saline aquifer

“…Therefore, the detrimental effect of microbes on power plant components has increasingly garnered attention. Indeed, several studies have been conducted to identify the organisms responsible for phenomena such as scaling, biofouling, and corrosion of installed iron or steel in groundwater wells and geothermal plants (Taylor et al 1997;Sand 2003;Cullimore 2007;Little and Lee 2007;Valdez et al 2009) to reduce these sources of failure, plant downtime, and the cost-intensive replacement of plant components. For example, the effectiveness of groundwater wells can be influenced by scaling, as iron and other metallic cations are enriched by precipitation that leads to the formation of amorphous or crystalline structures.…”