Objective:
The objective of this research program is to create a centralized resource and information base, in the public domain, which will rapidly disseminate information on the safe use of foundry sands in agricultural and horticultural markets. An additional objective is to develop liaison among industry collaborators, ARS and university researchers, Federal and state regulatory agencies, agricultural and horticultural end users, and other parties with an interest in evaluating the use of foundry sands as soil amendments.

Approach:
FIRST, Inc. (Foundry Industry Recycling Starts Today) is the national non-profit research and educational organization that provides a central resource for uses of recycled foundry sand outside the foundry process. In order to address the research problem stated above, FIRST has developed a national Foundry Sand Initiative in cooperation with USDA/ARS Beltsville area office and national program staff. The Foundry Sand Initiative has four initial components: a) Development of national risk assessment guidelines, to be performed by ARS BARC Animal Manure and Byproducts Laboratory (AMBL), which has extensive experience in risk assessment of other agricultural and industrial byproducts; b) Applied research at geographically dispersed land grant universities, located in states with significant foundry populations, concentrated on developing user guidelines for safe use of foundry sands in four targeted areas: manufactured topsoils; potting soils; turf growth; and land application for soil conditioning; c) Development of a central resource base and public/private sector liaison that will develop background information, support data collection and dissemination, and provide technology transfer; and d) Development of a liaison committee, composed of ARS and University scientists, industry representative, and others to provide suggestions, identify research needs, identify and coordinate cooperators, and help guide foundry sand research.