ABSTRACT
The direct use of microorganisms and their capabilities to solve environmental problems and for in situ agricultural and industrial applications can be defined operationally as environmental biotechnology. Obstacles to implementing biotechnology in hazardous waste reduction are likely to be "institutional and behavioral" rather than technical, as suggested by a recent Office of Technology Assessment report. Basic science and engineering research is needed to exploit environmental biotechnology for biological treatment of hazardous wastes and environmental contaminants. The goal of environmental biotechnology should be to provide specific current and future direction for integrating modem biotechnology in basic environmental science and engineering research in the control of hazardous wastes, be they agricultural, domestic, or industrial. A variety of open and closed treatment systems for the biological destruction of residues in soil have been described; many of these are amenable to molecular monitoring of critical gene frequencies.
