At a breakfast held at the Botanical Garden in Viña del Mar, members of the Scientific Committee of Las Salinas – which advises the company on soil remediation – took part in the meeting “Soil Remediation and Rehabilitation in the Valparaíso region”, organized by the company Séché Environnement together with the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María. The activity, held on Thursday, October 17, was attended by representatives of the Sustainability and Climate Change Agency, ASIVA, the Sustainable Development Commission of the Chilean Chamber of Construction, CChC, the municipalities of Valparaíso and Quintero, Enap, and the French-Chilean Chamber of Commerce, among others. The first speaker was Roberto Orellana, PhD in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts (UMASS), USM researcher, UPLA academic and member of the scientific committee of Las Salinas, who presented “Microbial diversity and its role in environmental liabilities: Microorganisms to the rescue! In his presentation, Professor Orellana referred to the resilience of the environment: “Environments have a very important component of resilience, and it is this component that bioremediation is part of. What these bioremediation processes do is that they improve the capacity of nature itself to recover itself”. Regarding the bioremediation work being carried out in Las Salinas, the academic added that it is “an effort based on a sustainable design for the remediation of the soil of that land. The challenge in this case is to carry out this process in the middle of the city”. After the presentations, a space for dialogue was opened at different working tables on the question “What are the next immediate steps we must take in Chile to move from diagnostic studies to action with real and sustainable remediation?” On the occasion, the Development Manager of Las Salinas, Esteban Undurraga pointed out that the Valparaíso region has – in his opinion – some of the best scientists in the world in terms of remediation. “It has been thanks to this group of scientists who are advising the company that have led us towards a real commitment to science (…) The only way to carry out effective remediation -especially in urban soils- is under this harmonious relationship between the private and academic worlds, which seeks to respond to a problem of social and environmental justice, with the objective that remediation in general is the instrument for a soil reconversion that benefits the cities”. Bioremediation consists of accelerating natural biodegradation processes through the use of microorganisms that absorb and digest contaminants, in this case, hydrocarbons. Once the contamination disappears, the population of microorganisms usually decreases or goes to rest. The bacteria currently present in the field are in low quantity, so there is a need to increase the microbial density to be able to degrade the hydrocarbons present in the field. This technique is widely used worldwide to remediate contaminated land in urban environments, as it is a clean and safe technology for the community.
