Other plant species accumulate radioactive isotopes such as uranium or cobalt. Their ashes can be recycled and marketed commercially. ARS researchers have finished the Minnesota test and are continuing lab tests in Maryland on different strains of pennycress. The pennycress is thriving where crops can't survive. The next step is to complete inheritance studies to find genes for hyperaccumulation from pennycress or ragweed and move them into common crops that grow larger, faster and are easier to harvest.
Canola grown for hay is a possible candidate.
Once the microbe is done feeding, farmers can dump the water on the ground without fear of contamination. That frees farmers from having to store several thousand gallons of rinsewater a year while searching for a way to safely dispose of it. The microbe, Klebsiella terragena , has a strong preference for the organic nitrogen in herbicides, but turns up its nose at the inorganic form in fertilizer. Previously tested microbes ate only fertilizer nitrogen in the rinsewater and left the pesticides untouched. Other microbes have been found that degrade alachlor, metolachlor and 2,4-D after ozone treatment.