ABSTRACT
Oil spills and PCBs contamination have signifi cantly impacted our natural and social environment, mainly from pollution vectors associated to transportation and leakage from waste disposal and industrial facilities. The large volumes of hydrocarbons produced, used, and disposed constitutes the basis to affi rm that a large portion of the Earth surface and subsurface is been infl icted by these petrochemicals. Furthermore, the inadequate management of equipment containing PCBs represents a potential source of toxic discharges to oceanic, terrestrial and limnetic ecosystems. Remediation technologies have been developed to mitigate the hazards PCBs represent to the environment and human health, but they tend to be expensive, particularly for developing countries. In this scenario, bioremediation is gaining public acceptance. This technology has been successfully studied and applied to situations such as Valdez oil spill on Alaska and Morris Berman on San Juan beaches. It has been reported to be an eco-effi cient alternative to mitigate contamination from oil spill and similar chemicals. Surfactants compounds have been extensively proven to degrade hazardous wastes. The use of surfactants on in-situ remediation is a suitable alternative for PCBs fi nal disposal due to high costs of transportation, incineration and other approved remediation procedures. Their use also eliminates long-term responsibilities, do not generate secondary hazardous compounds and is cost effective.
