The BERM facility consists of greenhouses, a small laboratory and a series of reservoirs and mesocosms. Funding for the facility was provided by the Georgia Research Alliance, a consortium of the major research universities in Georgia. This research complex provides an accessible, controlled environment for testing various bioremediation strategies for contaminated water and sediments in the coastal marine area. A variety of environments, including estuarine and freshwater lagoons, can be simulated in the BERM.

The tidal changes in the estuarine mesocosms are produced by a programmed filling and the draining of water from the Skidaway River. One purpose of the facility is to test strategies which can be used in the remediation of sites contaminated with mixed wastes, e.g., organics and metals. Contaminated sediment from the LCP Superfund Site in Brunswick, GA has been transferred to several mesocosms with the role of plants in remediation being evaluated. Besides bioremediation studies, biogeochemical studies can be carried out in the BERM.

An example would be studies that follow the transformation of natural metals and organics during passage through pore water sediment and tissues.