The toxicity of organic industrial remnants in water has been a concern globally especially when water serves as the primary source of life. The cleanup of contaminated water was taking a turn to biological technologies in 1980s. The first detoxification and treatment application of volatile compounds in aquifers was achieved by bioremediation. Bioremediation technology allows scientists to manipulate the ability of microbes to degrade organic hydrocarbons in detoxification of complex organic remnants. Therefore, bioremediation was first applied on hydrocarbons of polluted water. In situ bioremediation (ISB) has contributed effectively in the process of treating water making it a sustainable, cost-efficient, ecofriendly, and leading technology in degrading aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene giving what we know as (BTEX). These volatile organic compounds in particular, have shown high toxic levels to both fauna and flora when found in the water. Thus, an effective and bio-friendly technology must be implemented to treat and reverse the effect of BTEX. The factors that determine the right approach of application is the degradation rate of native anaerobic microorganisms to BTEX. Anaerobic microbes are known for their activity in the absence of oxygen resulting in less toxic by-products and less degradation time in oxygen depleted sites. Also, amendments used for the process acceleration of microorganism degradation can have a strong effect on the output. Recent studies consensus that the use of in-situ bioremediation aids in water treatment is quite powerful. However, the need to determine the efficiency of certain indigenous microbes and the techniques needed to be highlighted to increase the activity persists. In this review, the elaboration of effective microbial manipulation methods and the comparison to naturally occurring microbes is discussed. ISB has evolved in being more sustainable as the technologies and approaches of delivery of microorganisms has diverse widely in the recent years. Air sparging, bio-stimulation, and bioaugmentation are the most common technologies that has been used by scientists for ISB of water. Anaerobic microbes are suitable for aquifer decontamination from BTEX as they do not require oxygen nor external addition of microbes. External addition of microbes has been found to be unnecessary for the growth and maintenance of degradative activity of formerly found native microbes.

In situ bioremediation of contaminated water and accelerating amendments

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