ABSTRACT
"Agricultural wastewaters" is a generic phrase that means different things to different people. Perhaps a majority of individuals, however, associate agricultural wastewaters with pollution by anthropogenic chemicals, in recent times more often called "xenobiotic" compounds. Nitroaromatic molecules form a class of agricultural chemicals used primarily as herbicides and insecticides. The chlorinated phenoxy herbicides are used to control broadleaf weeds in agricultural fields, forests, and lawns. The use of bacteria to detoxify soils and waters contaminated by exotic agricultural and industrial chemicals is a young, developing technology. A highly effective way to decontaminate water containing xenobiotic molecules is to pass the contaminated water through a reactor packed with immobilized, pollutant-degrading bacterial cells. Cooperation between microbiologists and engineers is leading to rapid advances in techniques to apply bacterial processes to the remediation of soil and water pollution. Direct inoculation of natural waters with pollutant-degrading bacteria is an even more effective decontamination technique than direct inoculation of soils.
