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DaimlerChrysler Uses Flower Power to Clean Up Contaminated Plant Site

29 February 2000

DaimlerChrysler Uses Flower Power to Clean Up Contaminated Plant Site

    AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Feb. 28 -- DaimlerChrysler Corporation
engineers put nature to work in the cleanup of an abandoned manufacturing site
in Detroit.
    Using a process called phytoremediation, they grew sunflowers and mustard
plants in a giant flower bed to remove lead contamination from soil on the
industrial site.  They not only returned the soil to use, they also saved the
company about $1 million compared with the cost of landfilling the
contaminated soil, the usual method of disposal.
    "We avoided the problems that go with hauling the waste to a landfill, we
re-used the soil on the site which is now safe and usable for future projects
-- and we saved money," said Greg Rose, Senior Manager - Stationary
Environmental & Energy at DaimlerChrysler Corporation.
    The contaminated soil was located within the site of the former Detroit
Forge plant and foundry, which had produced automotive crankshafts and other
forgings before being deactivated in the early 1990s.  One area about the size
of a football field was contaminated with levels of lead high enough to
require action.
    DaimlerChrysler engineers found that they had a good site to test use of
phytoremediation.  The contaminated soil was located in an unused, open area,
so growing plants did not interrupt other operations on the site.
    The contaminated soil was dug up and moved into large flower boxes,
designed to contain the contamination and provide irrigation.  Sunflowers,
provided by Edenspace Systems Corporation in Virginia, were planted first,
drawing most of the lead out of the soil.  A crop of mustard plants followed
for cleanup of the remaining contamination.
    The lead was taken up through the roots and stored in the leaves of the
plants.  Within one growing season, 5,750 cubic yards of contaminated soil was
reduced to a few yards of lead-contaminated plant material, which was disposed
of in a landfill.
    The soil was returned to its original location, and with approval from the
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the site is now part of a
DaimlerChrysler axle plant.