 |
Phytoremediation By Native Saltcedar, Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas, NVSource: Raloff, J. "Living Routes to Toxic Routs" in Science News Online, July 29, 2000, available at http://www.sciencenews.org/20000729/note5.asp. Project Summary: The following text was excerpted from Raloff, J. "Living Routes to Toxic Routs" in Science News Online, July 29, 2000, available at http://www.sciencenews.org/20000729/note5.asp: Last fall, the federal government ruled that by 2001, community water suppliers must begin monitoring perchlorate. Utilities are now investigating how they might deal with this toxic mineral salt if it shows up in drinking-water sources. A paper in the July 10 Science of the Total Environment suggests planting salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima)--or tamarisk--along affected waterways. These shrubby trees mine salt from the water about them. Among the salts they sop up is perchlorate, finds Edward T. Urbansky's team at the Environmental Protection Agency's research lab in Cincinnati. Stalks of the plant submerged in the Las Vegas Wash, a stream near Las Vegas, picked up 300 micrograms of perchlorate per gram of tissue. Even dry twigs growing well above the water acquired 5 mg/g. Ironically, the federal government considers salt cedar--an invasive Asian native--to be a nuisance plant warranting removal. However, having had more than a century to put down U.S. roots throughout the arid West, where perchlorate contamination is common, "salt cedar must now be regarded as a major part of [that] ecosystem," Urbansky and his colleagues say. Instead of targeting the plant for removal, they suggest it be explored as a trap for the toxic agent. Additional Info Source: Raloff, J. "Living Routes to Toxic Routs" in Science News Online, July 29, 2000, available at http://www.sciencenews.org/20000729/note5.asp. Additional information about saltcedar provided by the Alien Plant Working Group is available at http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/tama1.htm. Urbansky, E.T., et al. 2000. Perchlorate uptake by salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima) in the Las Vegas Wash riparian ecosystem. Science of the Total Environment (July). |
|
||||
      
|
||||||