"Scientists" seem to think that chicken manure is magic.

researchers in China have discovered that chicken manure can be used to biodegrade crude oil in contaminated soil. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution the team explains how bacteria in chicken manure break down 50% more crude oil than soil lacking the guano. . .

A more environmentally benign approach is to bioremediation, which uses natural or engineered microbes that can metabolize the organic components of crude oil. Stimulating such microbial degradation in contaminated soil often involves the use of expensive fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus, and again may come with an additional environmental price tag despite the bio label. Soil hardening and a loss of soil quality often accompany this approach.

Ma and colleagues suggest that animal waste, and in particular chicken manure, may provide the necessary chemical and microbial initiators to trigger biodegradation of crude oil if applied to contaminated soil. One important factor is that chicken manure raises the pH of soil to the range 6.3 to 7.4 which is optimal for the growth of known oil-utilizing bacteria.

Chicken manure is a mix of actual manure, bedding, spilled feed and calcium carbonate, i.e. lime. Chickens get dosed with it since egg shells need it. Manure contains nitrogen and phosphorus. If a comparable fertilizer blend was manufactured it would stimulate soil microbes every bit as well, and not harm soil. That such a fertilizer blend is more expensive than chicken manure is a mistake, one that would soon be corrected if demand for manure rose, as it should.

Using microbial waste management for oil cleanup makes sense, but get real about the care and feeding of soil organisms.