Technology options involving the use of natural and accelerated bioremediation systems to treat complex mixtures of aromatic wastes would be a useful addition to current remediation strategies. The approach outlined in this paper would focus on harnessing the potential of a key detoxification enzyme, glutathione-S-transferase (GST) as part of an accelerated phytoremediation system to detoxify aromatic pollutants in soil and ground water. Major efforts will include the clarification of GST detoxification activity by characterizing the enzyme in a series of phenolic and azo-dye-tolerant phytoremediation candidates (e.g. elite clones of thyme), and the development of methods to manipulate the GST detoxification pathway in elite plant clones to accelerate the detoxification of aromatic pollutants. The information provided by the GST characterization studies could be used to develop significant new phytoremediation systems based on manipulated GST biotransformation pathways in elite plant clonal systems tolerant to highly polluted environments. One major advantage of the new phytoremediation systems would be their potential to perform in highly contaminated environments by providing a favorable rhizophere zone for microbial degradation of aromatics along with an enhanced GST-linked detoxification pathway

Oil-degrading bacteria were isolated from waters and sediments of the Manila Bay and Pasig River [Philippines]. Five types of bacteria were isolated from Manila Bay and four from Pasig River. The identified crude oil degrading species are Vibrio sp., Alcaligenes sp., Flavobacterium indologenes and Acinetobacter sp. from Manila Bay, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus sp., Micrococcus sp. and Pseudomonas putida from Pasig River. These isolates were identified through morphological and physiological characterization. The bioremediation potential for each of the isolates was assessed. The percentages oil conversion for the bacterial isolates ranged from 2.99 percent - 53.44 percent in one week's time. Alcaligenes sp. exhibited the highest biodegradation potential for all isolates. Statistical analysis revealed that the mean percentages diesel oil conversion by the isolates were significantly higher than their mean percentages crude oil conversion. Pure and mixed cultures did not give significant differences in their mean percentages crude oil conversion

Rapid urbanization of the Philippines, especially of Metro Manila area, has caused serious water pollution. Main causes of this are categorized into industrial wastewater and domestic wastewater, discharged without sufficient treatment. As for industrial wastewater, it is essential to put strict regulations on effluent standards, and for municipalities to keep a regular check to ensure these regulations are observed. Philippine government has been working on the improvement of the legislation and control of industrial wastewater until now. However, from now on, it is vital to put more efforts in getting domestic wastewater treated properly. It is indeed crucial to put the existing sewerage construction plans into practice, but generally, sewerage systems require; 1) long construction period, 2) effective funding, 3) high-density construction, and 4) human resources to run the systems effectively. Meanwhile, on-site waste water treatment tanks, or what we called purifiers, can play an important role in controlling the pollution of water environment, and they will serve to complement the sewerage system even after the completion of construction. Small-scale on-site wastewater treatment tanks, or small-scale purifiers, developed and used in Japan especially in developing countries, not only in the scope of environmental conservation but also from the viewpoint of utilizing the economic resources in the private sector

Test filter systems are quite helpful to study the persistence of organic compounds in order to give hints for a better remediation of the environment. Therefore special test filters are used in the chemical industry in Germany for more than 20 years in order to determine the microbial bad degradable parts of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the sewage outlets. These test filters can be considered as biological active fixed bed reactors which enable to simulate the biological degradation of organic compounds during an underground passage. It was shown by different investigations, that these test filter systems are well suitable for their expected tasks by determining group parameters. While looking for single compounds they were proven to be such good model systems. For good degradable compounds as e.g., 6-(methyl (phenylsulfonyl) amino)-hexanoic acid (HPS) it could be shown that these substances are microbially degraded on the test filter systems, while the more stable compounds, and an important example for that in Germany is naphthalene-1,5-disulfonic acid, showed a total different behavior. Therefore, the elimination of e.g. napthalene-1,5-disulfonic acid was investigated utilizing labscale filters containing Siran (porous, sintered glass) and activated carbon as support materials for bacteria. However, the different adsorption capacities of activated carbon and Siran had large effects on the measured substrate concentration. Thereby the test filter being run with Siran glass showed to be suitable for modeling the degradation behavior of single compounds during the underground passage. It can be concluded that those test filters can be utilized for studying organic compounds on their behavior as being relevant for water works by means of bad microbial biodegradability