Grant: Alliance Grants

Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) pose significant environmental and economic challenges, both in Canada and globally. Numerous remediation strategies are available for sites where PHCs are present. Still, their success hinges on having a comprehensive conceptual site model (CSM) detailing the PHCs' distribution, transport, and fate within the subsurface. Our joint initiative between the University of Guelph, bp Remediation Management (bp-RM), and Ecometrix is poised to pioneer a transformative multidisciplinary approach to CSM design. We propose a microbiome-centric CSM framework for sites impacted by liquid non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPL). Our research will concentrate on a well-studied field site, where a well blowout four decades ago resulted in extensive PHC contamination over more than 100 hectares, including LNAPL in fractured bedrock. The primary goal of this two-year project is to advance the understanding and measurement of microbially mediated degradation processes across all relevant environmental media (soil, sediments, groundwater, LNAPL, and surface water). By characterizing the microbial and functional diversity of the microbial community we will elucidate microbial degradation pathways in the environment and deepen our insight of the natural source zone depletion potential across the field site. Given that bp-RM oversees many petroleum and salinity-affected sites in Canada and other countries, the application scope of our research findings is considerable. Sites impacted by LNAPL, especially those in remote locations with fractured bedrock conditions, stand to gain significantly from biologically-informed CSMs, ultimately aiding in the regulatory acceptance of site management strategies and the formulation of remediation action plans.