Submitted by AutoModerator t3_11f5wzd in askscience
Indemnity4 t1_jak4yjc wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science by AutoModerator
Practically, no, not even close.
Phytoremediation is the science word.
Lots of plants do pull "stuff" from the soil and water. They accumulate it in the plant tissue, then you can chop that tree or grass down, burn and collect the ashes to dispose of the hazardous material. It is usually targeted at removing heavy metals from soil or water.
Unfortunately, the Ohio train spill was not heavy metals. Phytoremediation won't work here.
Another reason it won't is the chemical spilled was burned. It resulted in a cloud of ash particles and some hydrochloric acid rain. The acid will have immediately reacted with any soil or substrate to form fairly ordinary salts, such as table salt. It is an acute problem, not a persistant problem.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments