Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumNew Iron-Eating Microbe Major Component of Mining Pollution and Iron and Sulfur Cycling
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Mining operations expose minerals to air and water, causing the formation of extremely acidic metal-rich waters known as acid mine drainage (AMD). Ferroplasma acidarmanus has an ability to transform the sulfide found in metal ores to heavy metal-bearing sulfuric acid, the major contaminating solution draining into nearby rivers, streams and groundwater.
At Iron Mountain, an AMD site, researchers found that the iron-oxidizing bacterium Thiobacillus ferroxidans, previously thought to be the most important iron-oxidizing species, played only a minor role. Instead, F. acidarmanus makes up the majority of the microbial population. Its ability to survive and tolerate such acidic conditions when most life forms would perish raises many questions about the role the new species may play in moving life-sustaining elements around the planet and possibly the existence of life on other planets.
Iron Mountain has extremely high concentrations of iron, copper, arsenic, cadmium and zinc in solution. The researchers collected samples of mine water from the pyrite ore body about 500 meters into the mountain during the summer, when the solutions in the mine are concentrated due to lack of rainfall. The new organism was cultured and isolated from these samples, and then molecular probes were used to identify gene sequences that were similar to the isolate in natural samples. The team quantitatively determined that this organism dominated many of the sub-surface environments at the mine.
F. acidarmanus is a member of the microbial kingdom Archaea, one of the three major life groups on Earth. The other two groups are Eukarya, which includes humans, plants and animals, and Bacteria.
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12467&tid=282&cid=988
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)For a while the owner (instead of actually cleaning up the site) wanted to put a 200-foot Jesus statue up there.
Redding.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Ted Arman says he has a plan to turn what the government considers some of the world's most polluted water into plant fertilizer.
Arman flatly disputes claims the water is toxic.
He merely has to remove the arsenic from the water and it becomes an excellent fertilizer, Arman said.
"The entire property is a gift from God, and he wants me to do something with it for good, not evil like the EPA," Arman said.
http://www.redding.com/news/2012/jan/02/mine-water-safety-debate/
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)As one of the original EPA site workers from 1983-1984 I can tell you his talk of safety is quite exaggerated. We were the first handful of workers to enter the site with the task to install recording devices to measure the runoff of pollutants. In the beginning virtually every piece of equipment, every device we used , every tool we touched dissolved before our very eyes. The water at that time that poured from some 27 portals (openings in the rock) was so acidic that no devices were known to man that could measure it. The daily printouts provided by EPA labs showing contaminates terrified us all. But in the end the processes we developed help engineers build ways to control the runoff hopefully saving many lives.
Dead_Parrot
(14,478 posts)Arman's stupidity so complete that no devices were known to man that could measure it.
Film at 11.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)... sounds like it comes from some weird cartoonish megalomaniac (e.g., Pinky & the Brain, Dr.Evil).
> He merely has to remove the arsenic from the water and it becomes an excellent fertilizer, Arman said.
Ummm ...
>> Iron Mountain has extremely high concentrations of iron, copper, arsenic, cadmium and zinc in solution.
So "extremely high concentrations of iron, copper, cadmium and zinc" are OK as long as there is
no arsenic present ... r-i-g-h-t ...
How come that this moron isn't being investigated by the same people who would be very interested
in any "plan" to deliberately dump toxins into the food supply? (i.e., as a terrorist threat)
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)-3.6.
It's literally the lowest pH ever found outside a lab.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)... and a true testament to the power of money in politics that the guy
is not only still free but still in charge and making a profit.
Fokker Trip
(249 posts)Iron and copper and zinc are plant micronutrients but is cadmium? That pH is crazy though, would that dissolve glass and plastic?
I'd like to hear more from that testing tech. What did they wear to breath through?
What a mess all of these abandoned mines are, I have watched footage of kids playing on the rock piles in leadville. Very very sad. Such beautiful parts of the US.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)drm604
(16,230 posts)are sincere idiocy or if he's just pandering.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)It could go either way.
caraher
(6,278 posts)After all, the whole article talked about delicate microbes thriving in that environment.
Oh, I'd better add one of these:
AlecBGreen
(3,874 posts)whats the problem? </sarcasm>