Effects of Automobile Battery Wastes on Microbial Qualities of the Soil

Abstract

The natural balance in the qualities of soil located in close proximity to automobile battery charging workshop has undergone alteration in the recent year due to pollution traceable to automobile battery wastes. This paper examines the effects of automobile battery wastes on the microbial qualities of the soil. The soil for this study was collected from a battery charger’s workshop at 0-15cm depth in triplicates during the months of dry and wet seasons (August, September and October). An artificially contaminated soil which served as positive control (called amended soil) was also prepared by mixing 1.5kg of uncontaminated soil with 100g of battery waste while a fallow soil devoid of battery chargers’ activities served as negative control. Morphological and biochemical tests performed on battery waste isolates revealed micro-organisms such as Chromobacter spp,
Staphylococcus spp, Micrococcus spp, Streptococcus spp, Bacillus spp, Pseudomonas spp, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium spp, Geotrichum spp, Penicillium spp, Mucor spp and Rhizopus spp. The mean
total heterotrophic bacterial (THB) count was 3.66± 2.62 × 10 4 cfu/g and the mean fungal count was 1.49±0.46× 10 4 cfu/g in the contaminated soil. Meanwhile, in the negative control sample, THB and fungal counts were 5.10±3.89 × 10 4 cfu/g and 4.47±0.20 × 10 4 cfu/g respectively. Statistical analysis shows that THB and fungal counts for negative control sample was significantly (P< 0.001) higher than that of the contaminated soil, which suggests that battery waste adversely affects microbial load and its activities in the soil.