Phytoremediation Using Underemployed Agicultural Assets

Acknowledging the problems of drought and low farm prices, over the last three years the United States Congress has appropriated more than $20 billion in emergency farm aid to boost farm incomes, encourage conservation, and buy crop and livestock insurance. At the same time, millions of acres of the country are contaminated with lead, other metals, and organic pollutants that are expensive to remove using traditional techniques such as excavation and landfill. Edenspace Systems Corporation seeks to conduct a market feasibility study on whether underemployed farm labor and equipment can conduct large-scale environmental cleanup by using living plants to degrade or extract contaminants in a process called phytoremediation. The study will (i) categorize contaminated sites suitable for phytoremediation, (ii) identify agricultural expertise and equipment useful for phytoremediation, (iii) assess the likely costs and benefits of the approach, (iv) describe regulatory requirements and issues, and (v) explore the acceptability of the concept to environmental stakeholders and farming groups.