The new EAF Dust Disposal site is located adjacent to the North Slag Disposal Area (Figure 5-1). The EAF Disposal site is an industrial landfill built by SYSCO in 1999 for the disposal of Electric Arc Furnace Dust from the Baghouse. The dust contains carbon and various heavy metals associated with exhaust from the melting of scrap metal in the furnace. As discussed in Section 5.1.1, recent Environment Canada studies have indicated that dioxin production may be associated with the operation of electric arc furnaces. Therefore, EAF dust may contain trace quantities of dioxins. EAF dusts at the SYSCO site have not been tested for dioxins.

Potential environmental issues consist of heavy metal, petroleum and solvent impacts to soil and groundwater as a result of historic disposal activities prior to construction of the EAF Dust Landfill. Additional environmental issues may be associated with heavy metals from the dust contained within the open EAF dust disposal cell. Heavy metal concentrations in leachate samples collected from the landfill leachate collection system meet the SYSCO effluent discharge limits.

Blast furnace slag was widely used as a fill material in this area. Various heavy metals are known to be present in blast furnace slag, but often in a highly immobile state. An important part of future environmental testing at this site will be the appropriate evaluation of heavy metal impacts in relations to their environmental risk.