Monitoring the Bioremediation Process

The target chemicals should be sampled at least one month after the first treatment. If sampled sooner, the surfactant effect is more prominent and may give the appearance that the treatment is too slow or not working. If the system consists mainly of clay soils, the surfactant effect can persist longer than one month.

Since the effective concentration of the microbes (1 x 10⁶) is generally reduced after one month, sampling for the target chemicals on a monthly cycle will allow you to estimate the treatment time based on the breakdown rate that occurred during the month, when the population was at the effective concentration or higher.