Microcosm studies of microbial degradation in a coal tar distillate plume

Investigation of a groundwater plume containing up to 24 g l−1 phenolic compounds suggested that over a period of nearly 50 years, little degradation had occurred despite the presence of a microbial community and electron acceptors within the core of the plume. In order to study the effect of contaminant concentration on degradation behaviour, laboratory microcosm experiments were performed under aerobic and anaerobic conditions at four different concentrations obtained by diluting contaminated with uncontaminated groundwater. The microcosms contained groundwater with total phenols at ca. 200, 250, 660 and 5000 mg l−1, and aquifer sediment that had been acclimatised within the plume for several months. The microcosms were operated for a period of 390–400 days along with sterile controls to ascertain whether degradation was microbially mediated or abiotic. Under aerobic conditions, degradation only occurred at concentrations up to 660 mg l−1 total phenols. At phenol concentrations below 250 mg l−1, a benzoquinone intermediate, thought to originate from the degradation of 2,5-dimethylphenol, was isolated and identified. This suggested an unusual degradative pathway for this compound; its aerobic degradation more commonly proceeding via catecholic intermediates. Under anaerobic conditions, degradation only occurred in the most dilute microcosm (total phenols 195 mg l−1) with a loss of p-cresol accompanied by a nonstoichiometric decrease in nitrate and sulphate. By inference, iron(III) from the sediment may also have been used as a terminal electron acceptor, in which case the amount of biologically available iron released was calculated as 1.07 mg Fe(III)/g of sediment. The study shows that natural attenuation is likely to be stimulated by dilution of the plume.