This entails identifying indigenous species of bacteria within the vicinity of the contaminated site and determining the critical carbon sources and nutri­ents that could be supplied to encourage the growth of the target species. When the selected nutrients are introduced into the environment, either by injection into boreholes or by spreading on the ground, the target species will out-compete other species and will be able to degrade the contami­nants. The potential problem with this form of bioaugmentation is that the nutrients may be viewed as pollutants in their own right especially at the beginning of the bioaugmentation process when microbial loading is very low. The nutrients such as NO3- and SO42- have undesirable pollution effects on receiving water bodies such as eutrophication of streams receiving the base flow from the remediated areas.