Biodegradation of soil polluted with pops (hch and ddt) – results of laboratory trials

This work shows the results up to date of the biodegradation experiments started at ECOIND in April on soil samples collected from Turda and Oltchim sites, within Eurostars E!5164 – POPELIM project. The project partners are: Dekonta, ECOIND and DFR System SRL. Initial analyses showed contamination of Turda soil with HCH isomers (particulary β-HCH) of hundreds of μg/kg d.m. and with DDT of tens of μg/kg d.w. Initial analyses of Oltchim samples showed the pollution of soil with tens of mg/kg d.w. of HCH isomers and tens of μg/kg d.w. of DDX. The purpose of the biodegradation experiments was to demonstrate the performance of stimulation of indigenous soil bacteria to degrade pesticides (HCH and DDT) and to isolate bacterial strains with such degrading capacities.