ABSTRACT
The investigation of past operational and disposal practices at military facilities and formerly used defense sites has dramatically increased in the past several years. The manufacture; load, assembly and pack; demilitarization; washout operations; and open burn/open detonation of ordnance and explosives has resulted in contamination of soils with munitions residues. The primary constituents are nitroaromatic and nitramine organic compounds and heavy metals. A number of sites have soil contamination remaining where waste disposal practices were discontinued 20 to 50 years ago
In conjunction with site investigations, biological treatment studies have been undertaken to evaluate the potential for full scale remediation of organic contaminants. Because the cleanup of areas contaminated by explosives is now mandated because of public health concerns, considerable effort has been invested in finding economical remediation technologies.Bioremediation is now available as an alternative cleanup remedy for explosives-contaminated soils. Bioremediation boosts the activity of naturally occurring microorganisms to degrade hazardous substances in soil or sediment into nontoxic materials. This paper reviews some of the best performed studies in the recent years and tries to introduce bioremediation as a proper alternative for the more conventional methods