The conventional approach to removing mercury from the environment involves solidification/stabilization and subsequent deposition, which is very expensive--especially for large areas of low mercury concentration--and requires long-term storage sites. Biochemists, hydrogeologists, and other researchers and practitioners here report experiences with bioremediation approaches that are cheaper and less environmentally damaging. After a review of current research, they look at a former chlor-alkali factory in Kazakhstan, an abandoned polyvinyl chloride factory on the Mediterranean coast, the Madeira River Basin as a case study of land use change and mercury mobilization in the Amazon, the chlor-alkali electrolysis industry, the long-term operation of a microbiological pilot plant for cleaning up mercury-contaminated wastewater at electrolysis factories in Europe, and the microbiological treatment of air scrubber solutions from a waste incineration plant and other mercury-contaminated wastewater. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation 2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
