In my last post (Industrial wastes are really “valuable commodities”, “like newspapers”, says EPA), I noted that EPA relegated a qualifying statement on the inherent unsuitability of some foundry sands for reuse projects to a footnote on its website <http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/foundry/index.htm>. Specifically, after discussing its support for various foundry sand recycling applications, EPA adds the footnote:
Foundry sands also come from other types of foundries, such as from brass and bronze foundries, that are often characteristically hazardous and are therefore not included in this statement.
This is noteworthy to me, because EPA also has posted on its website a brochure about industrial materials recycling that states:
Foundry sand (spent sand used in metal casting) can be recycled in road embankments, flowable and structural fill, and base and sub-base for road construction.
The full color promotional brochure that the above statement is taken from includes no information or disclaimer that some foundry sands may be hazardous and unsuitable for reuse applications. Why would EPA post information that at best is misleading, and at worst is conflicting, on its website?
As EPA and its trade association partners try to encourage state and local governments to use more industrial wastes in their projects, local decisionmakers and the public will increasingly be looking to EPA for guidance on what is safe and acceptable risk, and what is just unknown. If EPA can’t be trusted to disclose all of the truth about industrial waste reuse risk, then the public health can’t afford to be the guinea pig in this experiment of increasing industrial waste recycling.
The brochure also lists a few projects that have used recycled industrial wastes, as well as EPA’s website that promotes industrial materials recycling, and several trade associations (representing the coal ash, construction and demolition debris, and spent foundry sand recycling industries). Obvious omissions from this list of supporters are independent researchers, environmental advocates, environmental justice groups, etc.
Citizen groups, independent testing centers, and health and ecological risk analysis experts need to be involved in these EPA decisions and have access to all the information that EPA is sharing with its trade association partners. Otherwise, the decisions, publications, and projects that come out of EPA public-private partnerships like this one, will be stongly biased toward industry interests and will not adequately protect human health and the environment.
