explains how scientists from the V Region determined that it will be possible to decontaminate the sector by enhancing the action of native microorganisms, a method widely used in developed countries. The transcription of the full article can be read below: After 20 years, the Las Salinas de Viña del Mar area will be able to solve its environmental problem, since the sanitation project proposed by the Inmobiliaria Las Salinas company, with the expert advice of specialist scientists from Valparaíso, received an Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) from the Regional Commission, giving the green light for the decontamination and overcoming of the risk of the sector of approximately 16 hectares. The scientific committee behind the proposal included academics and researchers Michael Seeger, from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María; Marcel Szantó and Luis Álvarez, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso; Roberto Orellana, from the Universidad de Playa Ancha; and Salvador Donghi, from the company Simbiosis SPA, together with their respective research teams, who advised Copec through Inmobiliaria Las Salinas, proposing a cleanup and bioremediation initiative. This cooperation with ILS has included site contamination diagnostic studies and various bioremediation studies of the Salinas soils, carried out in agreement with the USM since 2015, counting on the collaboration of international experts. “Simply put, bioremediation consists of recovering the quality of contaminated soils using natural processes and microorganisms native to the site,” explains the director of the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Environmental Biotechnology, full professor of the Department of Chemistry and senior researcher at the Center for Biotechnology “Dr. Daniel Alkalay Lowitt” (CB-DAL) of the USM, Dr. Michael Seeger. “If we left this site with its current contamination levels, the microorganisms would probably be able to remove the hydrocarbons present within a century. But because it is a very slow process, what bioremediation does is accelerate this natural process,” he adds. For Las Salinas, the bioremediation proposed in the scientific group’s project consists of two main strategies. The first is biostimulation, which consists of adding nutrients to the soil, using compost, so that the native microbiota present at the site have sufficient nutrients to activate and accelerate the hydrocarbon degradation process. If after several trials using biostimulation the required levels of decontamination are still not achieved, then the process will be reaffirmed using bioaugmentation technology, whereby native, non-pathogenic bacteria from the same site or from other places in the Valparaíso region are added to the site. This remediation process will be carried out by an international company with expertise in bioremediation under the guidance of the scientific committee. “What will be done is to dispose the soils in biopiles, with aeration systems and taking care to maintain soil moisture. In this first biostimulation stage, what will be added will be compost,” explains Professor Seeger.
“This is an absolutely regulated and common process, just like what one adds in the garden of the house so that the plants grow better, but carried out on a large scale and maintaining studies and all kinds of follow-up. The evolution will be highly monitored to see what is happening with the pollutants, with the microbial community, what its dynamics are, and to avoid affecting the surroundings, with monitoring of the air as well”, he adds. According to the academic, for an urban bioremediation project of this scale, and in such a central part of the city, there are no known precedents in Chile, although it is a type of technology that is routinely applied in urban sites in developed countries such as Germany, Italy, France, the United States and Canada. “In Chile there have been bioremediation processes of contaminated soils, such as in the Magallanes region, where ENAP has carried out oil exploration. However, these have been rural sectors,” says Dr. Seeger. “In the developed world, on the other hand, there are many concrete examples of urban bioremediation. One of them is where the University of Milano-Bicocca is located in Milan, Italy, a public university that was built where the Pirelli tire industry used to operate. It is a very extensive urban sector that was recovered and incorporated into the city, where several housing complexes were also built,” says the researcher, who is also a member of the faculty of thesis directors of the PhD in Environmental Sciences of the University Milano-Bicocca. “The problem we have had in Chile is that there are no soil quality regulations, which means that our legislation on this subject is far behind that of the OECD countries. Many contaminated soils have not been treated correctly, having been built on them with a tremendous risk for the population, something that has happened in Arica, Andacollo and Puerto Montt,” the specialist says. “In this sense, urban policy in Chile has not been very respectful of the quality of life of its inhabitants. If the country wants to move towards sustainable development, it has to address and take charge of pollution”. A point to highlight for the scientists involved is that the Las Salinas sanitation project is an example of cooperation between local universities and companies to solve important regional problems. “It seems to us that it is fundamental to advance towards a knowledge society where there is a transfer of knowledge, something that occurs precisely in the work with companies, with public agencies and with the community,” explains Professor Seeger. “This project is an example where universities contribute by transferring knowledge to society, particularly to a company, to clean up a site that has industrial liabilities due to industrial activity dating back more than 80 years, in order to recover it and contribute to the quality of life in Viña del Mar”. The Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María has been leading bioremediation studies for 23 years, mainly through the Chemistry Department and the Biotechnology Center. The institution has three families of international patents in the United States, Europe and Latin America, and has been recognized both nationally and internationally for its development and publications in the areas of bioremediation and bioproducts.
In these areas, the university is currently leading the GAMBIO Ring project of associative research ANID together with the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana and Universidad de La Frontera (2017-2021) and a FONDECYT project that establishes the basis for the bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons (2020-2024). The Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology and Environmental Biotechnology has graduated a total of 24 PhDs in biotechnology, chemistry, microbiology and natural resources, with 10 PhD candidates currently working on their biotechnology theses in its facilities. The joint Doctorate in Biotechnology of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso has graduated 77 Ph.
