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University of Guelph research project studying trees’ potential role in cleaning up chemical spills

Researchers at the University of Guelph are studying the effectiveness of trees in the cleanup of contaminated sites. The team planted 120 willow trees atop a fractured bedrock aquifer in a location where toluene had leached into the ground. The study hopes to determine if the trees’ interaction with the soil can produce microbes that could help clean up chemical spills, including toluene. The site will be monitored over the next five years by the research team that includes personnel from the university’s G360 Institute for Groundwater Research, the University of Waterloo and the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

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