The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Ohio State University (OSU) have released a risk assessment concluding that silica-based spent foundry sands from iron, steel and aluminum foundries, when used in certain soil-related applications, are protective of human health and the environment and yield environmental benefits.
The EPA’s risk assessment of the evaluated uses concluded that they are environmentally appropriate because the constituent concentrations in the sands are below the agency’s health and environmental benchmarks.The EPA says it estimates the environmental benefits from using silica-based spent foundry sands in the specific applications studied, at the current use rate, results in the following savings in one year:
- the energy savings equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 800 homes;
- carbon dioxide emissions reductions equivalent to removing 840 cars from the road; and
- water savings of 7.8 million gallons.
More information on the risk assessment is available at http://epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/imr/foundry/index.htm.