July 2014

EPA Fact Sheet: Spent Foundry Sands Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment Results and Beneficial Use Implications

EPA, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Ohio State University
(OSU), has completed a risk assessment of spent foundry sands in soil-related applications,
specifically manufactured soil, soil-less potting media, and roadway sub-base, which is a foundation
layer of roads.

The risk assessment demonstrates that the use of specific spent foundry sands in the evaluated uses
is protective of human health and the environment As such, the EPA supports the beneficial use of
these materials that would otherwise go to waste, because they are comparable to virgin materials
and below the agency's health and environmental benchmarks. The risk assessment results are
specific to silica-based spent foundry sands from iron, steel and aluminum foundry operations.

Background on Risk Assessment:

To address soil-related uses of spent foundry sands, the EPA, USDA, and OSU launched a
collaborative effort to evaluate the potential risks of using spent foundry sand and to encourage
beneficial use. The overall goals for the risk assessment were to:

•	Review the available information on spent foundry sands in soil-related applications;

•	Identify likely exposure pathways and receptors associated with various uses;

•	Use a combination of screening and modeling methods to determine whether the proposed
uses of spent foundry sands are protective of human health and the environment; and

•	Discuss the findings within the context of certain overarching concepts (e.g., the
complexities of soil chemistry) and provide conclusions.

Spent foundry sands from leaded and non-leaded brass and bronze foundries, and spent foundry
sands containing olivine sand were not included in this assessment.

Potential Benefits:

EPA believes that there is potential for growth in the beneficial use market for the evaluated uses,
resulting in substantial environmental benefits. Approximately 2.6 million tons of spent foundry
sand is beneficially used outside of foundries annually, with iron, steel and aluminum sands
representing 96 percent of the foundry sands that are beneficially used. Currently, only about 14
percent of those sands are beneficially used in soil-related applications.

Environmental benefits from the beneficial use of SFS include reduced energy and water impacts
associated with food production, and reduced CO2 emissions associated with the construction of
roadways and other infrastructure.

An EPA analysis (EPA, 2008) provides estimates of the environmental benefits that can be achieved
with the beneficial applications that were studied in this risk assessment The analysis calculated
environmental benefits per 1,000 cubic yards of spent foundry sands and then extrapolated those
benefits to the total amount of spent foundry sands used in a specific application in one year. As a
point of reference, 1,000 cubic yards of spent foundry sands would cover the size of a football
field approximately 6 inches deep. Table 1 below presents the results of this analysis.

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July 2014

Table 1: Environmental Benefits of Spent Foundry Sands Beneficial Uses

Avoided
Impacts

Road Base Use -
Extrapolated to
144,288 tons of spent
foundry sand

Manufactured Soil Use

- Extrapolated to
220,949 tons of spent
foundry sand

Total avoided
impacts

Equivalencies

Energy
Consumption
(megajoules)

17,800,000

27,900,000

45,700,000

Annual electricity
consumption of 800
homes

Water
consumption
(1,000
gallons)

3,000

4,800

7.8 million
gallons

Amount of water to fill
12 Olympic swimming
pools

C02
Emissions
(metric tons)

1,500

2,500

4,000 metric
tons

Removing 840 cars
from the road for one
year

Working Towards a Sustainable Future:

The risk assessment supports EPA's ongoing efforts to advance Sustainable Materials Management
fwww.epa.gov/smml by demonstrating that the beneficial use of spent foundry sands in soil-
related applications can help reduce the environmental impacts associated with food production as
well as the construction of roads and other infrastructure.

The full risk assessment is available at: http: //epa.gov/waste /conserve /imr /foundry/index.htm

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