OIL CONTAMINATION COMBATANT

MUSHROOMS OFFER BIOREMEDIATION OPTIONS

Mycelium, especially the oyster mushroom, shows promise for consuming and converting environmentally toxic hydrocarbons.
Marsha W. Johnston
Mycologist Paul Stamets measures fecal coliform bacterial counts at a mycofiltration test site.

streams and rivers. It belongs to the "decomposer" class, as do most gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Scientists have catalogued about 14,000 species of mushroomforming fungi. Paul Stamets, CEO of Fungi Perfecti in Olympia, Washington, says between 20 percent and 25 percent of those are "decomposers." When decomposer mushrooms require nourishment, their mycelial network excretes enzymes and acids that seek out organic material, typically lignin and cellulose, the two basic building blocks of plant fiber. Lignin and cellulose are composed of

T
BIOCYCLE

HE NEXT TIME you saut a skillet of oyster mushrooms, consider this: You are eating the fruit of one of the most powerful natural agents known to science for breaking down industrial pollutants. Few people are aware of the powers of that mushroom's primary organism, its infinitely intricate network of thready roots called the mycelium. The oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus, is one of most common mushrooms found in riparian environments along

long chains of carbon and hydrogen. Coincidentally, so are many organic pollutants, including petroleum products, pesticides and herbicides. Howard Sprouse is CEO of The Remediators Inc., a company using mycelium to decontaminate soil. He confirms that petroleum and lignin are structurally the same. As a result, although lignin is one of the most resistant organic compounds because it's a polymer (used to create plastics and resins), mycelium easily breaks it down into carbon dioxide and water. Using fungal decomposition to break down toxins and decontaminate an environment (usually soil) is known as mycoremediation. It includes the use of microorganisms, green plants or their enzymes. Stamets has been collecting strains of rare fungi in the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest for 30 years, and researching which strains, alone or in combinations, speed up the decomposition process of target contaminants. "We have a library of hundreds of strains that we have collected, and 99 Oyster mushrooms introduced into percent of them are decomdiesel contaminated soil (at left) posers," says Stamets of his broke down 95 percent of the work, which includes producing hydrocarbon in a space of 16 mushroom-based inoculant for weeks. Oyster mushroom use in soil remediation. "Oyster mycelium absorbing oil (above). mushrooms have proven the most adaptive and versatile
SEPTEMBER 2010 35

The addition of mycofiltration bags (far right) to standard best management practices of a protective fence, a vegetated ditch and a healthy pasture (near right) helped one farm adequately deal with pathogen runoff issues.

.-.!..I MV I
II

t f

mushroom-forming fungus we know for hioremediation of petroleum products." An early field experiment conducted by the Washington Department of Transportation and Battelle Laboratories ( 19992000) proved the efficacy of a strain of Stamets' Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium against bacteria and enzymes on three piles of soil each contaminated with between 10,000 to 20,000 ppm of diesel. In the space of a month, the pile of contaminated soil inoculated with oyster mushroom mycelium had sprouted 12-inch diameter oyster mushrooms. After 16 weeks, 95 percent of the hydrocarbons had broken down and the soil was deemed nontoxic enough to be used for landscaping. By contrast, neither of the

Maximize your productivity and performance with our largecapacity truck-mount or trailer models. Even, controlled spread patterns and optional scale systems on some models will provide precise application of the widest variety of industrial and municipal waste, biosolids, compost, food waste and many other solid materials.

sites bioremediated with bacteria or engineered bacteria showed significant changes. Eurthermore, as the mushrooms rotted away, "fungus gnats" moved in to eat the spores. The gnats attracted other insects, which attracted birds, which brought in seeds. The oyster mushroom site was the only one that became an oasis of life. When oyster mushrooms sprout on mycoremediated soil, they show no trace of hydrocarbons, which Stamets attributes to the mycelium reassembling them into fungal carbohydrates. However, because researchers don't yet know how much the mushrooms hioaccumulate the other toxins in petroleum products such as heavy metals and carcinogens he advises against eating them. Stamets is working to identify other petroleum-eating mushroom species. "We're doing challenge tests now with 12 different species, and based on their pace of growth and response, we have other candidates that are also good for remediation of oil environments," he says. At the same time, Sprouse is testing the efficacy of mycelium against dioxin. Bioremediation expert and veteran EPA Environmental Response Team member Harry L. Allen II acknowledges the power of mycelium, but notes that in a recent project in Vietnam to remediate dioxin, the indigenous bacteria he used outperformed the indigenous fungi. One limiting factor, he explains, is that the fungi must be extremely stressed in order to generate the materials necessary to dispatch the chemicals.
APPLYING MYCOREMEDIATION IN THE GULF

With the oil disaster in the Gulf, both Stamets and Sprouse have submitted proposalsproposals Stamets to the EPA and Coast Guard, Sprouse to a local parish for cleaning up BP's mess by using oyster mushroom-inoculated material. Stamets' proposal centers on the use of what he calls "mycobooms," 100-percent biodegradable hemp socks filled with straw mixed with germinated mushroom spores. To test the concept, he deployed them in three locations in the Puget Sound to determine their tolerance to saltwater. He also floated a mini mycoboom in an oil slick in a tub full of salt water to test oil absorption. After
36 BIOCYCLE SEPTEMBER 2010

three weeks, tbe booms were still floating in Puget Sound and the oyster mushrooms had completely colonized the saltwater-soaked straw on both. "The oil is absorbed above the water line, Stamets says. "As the fungi eat the straw, they create CO2, water, acid and enzymes, and the fragrances of mycelium attract insects and fish. There is a whole domino effect of benefits. Mycobooms would keep new oil out on the outside, while on tbe inside tbey would release enzymes to remediate the oil already in the marshlands habitat." Stamets notes that the mycobooms should be used in conjunction with repeated spreading of a debris field of straw inoculated witb mushrooms over the marshlands. As of this writing, the proposals are still being evaluated. In Wasbington State, tbe Mason County Conservation District has been working closely with Stamets for nearly three years, using mycobag filters primarily to stop e coli contamination of water from farm runoff. At some sites, more typical bioremediation best practices such as bioswales were not working, threatening the region's multimillion-dollar shellfish operations, says Rich Geiger, district engineer for Mason, Jefferson, Thurston and Kitsap county conservation districts. One farm closest to some oyster beds was close to being sbut down because its runoff was consistently over the limit for e coli contamination, explains Geiger. The soils in the healthy grass-lined bioswale did not perk well enougb for it to function as intended and the area was frequented by largeflocksof geese, a vector for E. coli. "We installed the first mycofilters, and he came into compliance at the very next test with a dramatic reduction," says Geiger. The county conservation districts have at least 14 installations in various configurations on an "experimental" basis, because neither the districts nor Stamets have the capital to pay for the lab testing required to certify mycoremediation as a best practice. All involved parties agree tbat getting tbe certification would be an important step to growing the mycoremediation industry. "We are in the 21' century, and a lot of the best management practices that we are using now were developed early in the 20'^ century," says Geiger. "There has been no real evolution. If we can understand better what is happening at the microscopic level with mycelium processes, we have the opportunity to revolutionize remediation and water-quality best practices by using mycoremediation. It needs to be investigated aggressively." Two major obstacles to using mycoremediation or any other kind of bioremediation are resistance to change and time constraints, according to many in the field. Charlie Butros, director of tbe Mason County Public Works Department, says tbe current grant "considers mycofilters an 'innovative treatment option' and will not fund them, only "approved' methods. We're not installing new ones for that reason. As soon as we get funding that will allow [lab testing], we hope to expand." Bioremediation efforts, including mycoremediation, take up to six to seven months to work, and many customers particularly developers feel they cannot afford to wait. For that reason, the two top tactics for eliminating soil contaminated with petroleum products remain hauling it away (called "hog and haul") or paving it over, says San Diego, California, based Environmental Business International founder Grant Ferrier. Adds the EPA's Allen: "The advantage of biological treatment is tbat it is cheaper than many methods, but only sometimes cheaper than hog and haul."
Marsha W. Johnston is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C, specializing in wildlife conservation, sustainable development and renewable energy issues. She can be found at http://stewardingthewild.wordpress.com.
BIOCYCLE

COMPOSTING

FLEXIBILITY

M O D E L SOOC Use our attachments and self-propelled transportable units for your composting, dewatering or bioremediation projects.

[IBRDWn

BROWN BEAR CORPORATION

PO Box 29 Corning, Iowa Phone (641) 322-4220 Fax (641) 322-3527 www.brownbearcorp.com

SEPTEMBER 2010

37

Copyright of BioCycle is the property of JG Press, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.