Summary

Lands with contaminated soil by used lubricating oil are accelerating and it is becoming an emerging environmental threat in Sri Lanka. Because the used lubricant oil contaminants not only negatively affect on overall soil quality but also may affect negatively on different ecological receptors and health of living being. Possible genotoxic and mutagenic effect of used lubricant oil contaminants are highly concerned since these effects lead to inheritable health problems. However, any ecologically sound treating method to remediate the contaminated soils has not been applied yet. Therefore, through the proposed study, we will examine the potential to apply phytoremidiation as a novel , ecologically sound, socially acceptable green technology based approach to remediate the used lubricating oil contaminated soils by using species combinations and single species of Impatient balsamina and Crotalaria retusa in the presence and absence of compost as a soil amendment

Objectives

i.To determine the optimum used lubricating oil contamination level in the soil at which the selected plant species Impatient balsamina and Crotalaria retusa grow without showing any negative impact compared to the control experiment.

ii.To investigate the best plant species or the best combination of plant species with the highest phytoremediation potential out of the selected plant species Impatient balsamina and Crotalaria retusa.

iii. To determine the effects of the addition of compost on phytoremediation potential of the selected plant combination or the selected plant species.

iv. To determine the mechanism of the phytoremdiation of the selected plant combination or the selected plant species.