Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Microbes Responsible for Destroying our Sewers?

Concrete Dissolving Bacteria..

          Our sewers are harboring microbes, providing them with damp, humid environments that are well protected. According to researchers, thereare different families of microbes that live in this ecosystem, some of those that actually emit hydrogen sulfide.

 These particular microbes are responsible for the raw, gross smell that comes from our sewers. Meanwhile, a separate family of microbes is turning that hydrogen sulfide into sulfuric acid, which is eating away at the concrete in the sewers. This is essentially how microbes are destroying sewers, eating away at the concrete pipes. Researchers have been looking at ways to solve this, but have not yet come up with anything solid. They think maybe targeting the microbes with bacteriophages or antibiotics could help. However, researchers seem to think that they may be able to fight this problem with the problem itself. Meaning using microbes against microbes and letting them do their own thing. This is essentially what's happening at sewage treatment plants, which is pretty much just relying on microbes to treat our sewage.
          Personally, I think that allowing the microbes to do the treating is the best way. In our field trip to the ABQ water treatment plant, we learned that by using microbes to treat the sewage, we are treating it perfectly. However due to this article, it seems that there are plenty of other places that don't really have proper sewage treatment plans, or really any plans at all. I personally don't quite understand why that is, but a likely reason could be the change in environment. This brings up some questions for me. By treating the water at a treatment plant with microbes, are they killing two birds with one stone by also treating the concrete? Are these interconnected in any way? If our sewages continue to get eaten away at, what will that mean for us in the future? Can microbes save us from themselves?
 
http://gizmodo.com/concrete-dissolving-bacteria-are-destroying-our-nation-1553419185​
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 4, 2014 at 9:12 AM

    If it can help with water treatment, it should definitely help with the sewages elsewhere. Maybe they are afraid that the microbes might end up evolving to where they are resistant to the microbe cleaners. That's why they are leaving it be for now, and they might leave it be for quite a while because the concrete won't dissolve all the way anytime soon and this gives them more time to research and experiment how to effectively treat this problem.

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  2. UnknownApril 4, 2014 at 9:12 AM

    I feel like this is a subject that people should really look into more because if the microbes eat away at the pipes, there's more chance of a leak occurring and us on the surface being exposed to waste from down below. Also, what happens when the "treat" the concrete to be stronger so it doesn't break? I don't think a treatment of the concrete would sit well with the water because what if it mixes in different new compounds together to make the water less treatable? I really hope the people who work at these troubled plants help make it better, so everyone's health is protected in the long run.

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  3. UnknownApril 10, 2014 at 8:41 AM

    It's a really important problem, not just in sewage pipes, but other kinds of pipes too. The concrete is dissolved by sulfuric acid that is probably on the order of 0-2 pH--something that's hard to prevent! It would be nice to know exactly how they're using the microbes against themselves. Money (redoing all the pipes) is probably an issue too.

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  4. 40some and DatingApril 11, 2014 at 3:09 PM

    Amazing connection to your learning in the microbiology course!

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