ABSTRACT
In the treatment of wastes, environmental engineering biotechnology (EEB) has used almost every type of process bioengineered in a microorganism that "classical" fermentation biotechnology ever used. The time is therefore long overdue to recognize EEB as biotechnology at its best and to overcome its being "dirty biotechnology". The success of genetic engineering depends to a large extent on the ability of classical biotechnology to implement the achievements of the former in the field. One of the principal tasks of the environmental engineering profession is the treatment of liquid, semiliquid, and solid organic wastes of municipal, agricultural, and industrial origin. Genetic engineering, with its new advances in recombinant DNA, gene cloning, and DNA probing, can be most instrumental in the "creation" of the long-sought "superbug". Environmental engineering practice will have to resort to more advanced and more efficient biological treatment techniques to treat organic wastes.
