Guest Speaker: Kent Armstrong

In this latest lesson, our AP Environmental Science class hosted a guest speaker that shed some light on his role in protecting and preserving mother nature. Mr Kent Armstrong of the organization Biostryke spoke to us that day about what his company does for the environment and how his endeavors are accomplished.

Mr Armstrong himself
Photo taken by Max Kaesshaefer

Mr Armstrong is the head of Biostryke – a company that aims to cleanse or decontaminate buildings, land, or other areas that have been affected by harmful chemicals. Since 1974, this organization has been active in cleaning up areas blighted by chemicals. Because of his work, there are less toxic chemicals in our local environment that c

ould potentially be harmful to people. Armstrong also described many methods of removing chemicals from the ground and their pros and cons. One such technique included the ‘hog and haul’, a system in which contaminated ground or objects are simply picked up/dug up and deposited at a landfill. This presents a very quick method of removing contaminants. However, this technique simply displaces chemicals instead of actually rendering them harmless. Also, to ‘hog and haul’ can cost a significant amount of money to collect, transfer and deposit these contaminants. As a truck can only carry one ton of contaminants, hiring a very large amount is necessary. Armstrong mentioned that "money is ruling the roost,” and that to ‘hog and haul’ is not advisable. Another method of decontaminating areas that Biostryke specializes in is the fertilization of contaminated ground with a food that can nurture colonies of microscopic organisms that consume toxic chemicals. This method is also known as bioremediation. Bioremediation is a much slower process than the ‘hog and haul’ method but instead of simply relocating chemicals, these organisms, or ‘bugs’ as Mr Armstrong called them, can clean an area and remove any potential harm associated with it. Also, bioremediation is significantly cheaper than to ‘hog and haul’. Kent Armstrong later explained the utilization of a superfund in an effort to publicly clean various places.

Bioremediation
Photo taken by Max Kaesshaefer

In addition to an elaboration on his job, Armstrong explained the dangers associated with harmful chemicals. He stressed that as students we should “doubt everything, question everything, be aware." Armstrong made it clear that toxic chemicals pose a threat to our health and longevity and that they can be found everywhere. Armstrong recalled an incident where the very walls and ceilings of a cafeteria in a school were oozing with mercury. A spike in cancer rates worldwide can be attributed to the presence of chemicals that humans ingest, inhale, or enter our bodies in another form. It is likely that mercury poisoning could be prevalent among students that once were enrolled at this school. He also stated that "One of the biggest polluters is the military and the second is industry." Because of the absurdly harmful nature of high tech weaponry, an area can be made unliveable after being tested on by a military force. This has shown to be a significant problem for areas such as Iraq, where once fertile ground has been ravaged due to recurring bombardment and subsequent contamination.

I found our guest speaker to be very enlightening. Prior to his speech, my knowledge concerning the cleanup of harmful chemicals was very limited. In fact, I had no idea that micro-organisms could consume toxic chemicals at all. To learn about what Biostryke does for our environment gave me some confidence that perhaps we did had some way of correcting our mistakes after all. Before Armstrong explained his mission, I was under the impression that cleaning contaminated ground was an unrealistic task that could be tremendously expensive, and would yield poor results. Learning about Armstrong gave me confidence in Biostryke's abilities and I hope that their technique of bioremediation is implemented at a larger scale.