Project Description

Historical manufacturing operations impacted the site soils at the Ford Motor Company’s Rouge facility in Dearborn, Michigan. As part of their ‘Green Initiative”, Ford selected phytoremediation to treat the impacted soils (primarily PAHs) at source areas surrounding their coke ovens and former manufactured gas production areas. ROS teamed with Michigan State University (MSU) to successfully demonstrate the application of phytoremediation through vegetated capping and engineered wetlands during a 2-year laboratory treatability testing and field test plot demonstration program. ROS designed and constructed the test plot areas utilizing nearly 500 cy of PAH-impacted soils (average concentrations for total carcinogenic PAHs of 300-1200 ppm) and along with MSU implemented the 18-month phytoremediation performance monitoring efforts. A number of plant species, both terrestrial and wetland plants were identified to successfully degrade PAHs and to enhance root-zone microbial biotreatment. The demonstration project was expanded for ROS to design and construct a full-scale phytoremediation system as part of Ford’s 2003 Centennial Celebration. The project gained national attention by the USEPA’s innovative technology research program as a comprehensive phytoremediation research and site cleanup project.