As described in the preceding section, the Former Sydney Steel Plant Lands have accumulated a variety of potential environmental issues over its 100-year history. Table 6-1 presents a matrix of significant environmental issues associated with each of the 36 SCUs shown in Figure 5-1. The matrix has been developed based on the information presented in Section 5.0.

The matrix presents three categories of potential environmental issues:

1. Known issues have been identified either by SEACOR Environmental during the course of the current environmental decommissioning program, by JDAC in the Muggah Creek Phase II/III ESA reports, or in other environmental studies.
2. High Potential issues have either been observed but not yet confirmed through laboratory testing (i.e., surface staining), or are strongly suspected due to the known long-time presence of contributing factors that would cause such an issue (i.e., lubricant use in the Old Rail Mill).
3. Potential issues are those that, based on the history of land use or of specific activities in a given area, have a significant potential to be present, but no analytical or anecdotal evidence has been identified.

The potential environmental issues listed in Table 6-1 are divided into four categories:

1. Buildings and Other Structures
2. Waste Disposal
3. Underground Utilities
4. Soil and Sediment
5. Groundwater

Within each of these categories are specific issues or contaminant groups such as petroleum hydrocarbons, buried asbestos waste, and PCBs. A solid colour indicates the potential for the specific issue to be widespread within the particular SCU. An “X” indicates that the potential environmental issue is associated with a specific location, or is expected to be confined to a small area.
Table 6-2 presents similar information, but from a different point of view. A list of 27 “Areas of Concern” are provided, cross-reference to the SCUs that are potentially affected by each concern. This alternative display of the potential environmental issues is intended to facilitate planning for the investigation of each Areas of Concern, should such an approach be taken. An alternative approach, for example, is to investigate each SCU separately.

Specific recommendations are provided in Section 6.2, followed by a brief description of factors effecting the implementation of the recommendations.