The city of Leuna was the location of one of the former East Germany's most important industrial facilities, and is now one of the Federal Republic of Germany's biggest clean-up sites. The groundwater in the area is heavily contaminated with MTBE and benzene, which is highly carcinogenic.
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Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research are testing various ways of cleaning up Leuna cheaply and effectively, and have discovered that a combination of the right micro-organisms, ceramic balls and willow trees does the trick.