2007 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) 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. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) 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. 3.Progress Report This report documents research being conducted under a Specific Cooperative Agreement between ARS and FIRST (Foundry Industry Recycling Starts Today). Additional results of the research can be found in the report for the parent project 1265-12000-035-00D, “Benefits and Risks of Using Waste Foundry Sand for Agricultural and Horticultural Applications”. During this reporting period, FIRST continued its activities in providing liaison, coordination and data transfer between the foundry industry, ARS and other parties Primary activities focused on providing information on the FIRST website, coordinating a Soils Tag-On Day for the 2006 Industrial Byproduct Summit, and providing technical transfer and outreach to a variety of foundry and public agency stakeholders. FIRST upgraded its website and added a searchable on-line Technical Library. Abstracts from all of the research reports created under the Foundry Sand Research Initiative are being archived in the FIRST Technical Library, along with many other publications and reports that are relevant to foundry sand reuse and recycling. FIRST also began a discussion with the National Agricultural Library about developing a database of all published literature pertaining to the recycling of industrial byproducts such as foundry sand. FIRST provided quarterly updates on the foundry sand research initiative to the American Foundry Society (AFS) environmental committees and U.S. EPA Foundry Sand Task Force. FIRST also assured that presentations by university cooperators at Purdue and Pennsylvania State universities were given at the annual meetings of, respectively, the Indiana Cast Metals Association and the Pennsylvania Foundry Association. These presentations provided opportunities for foundries in key agricultural states to interact directly with research cooperators. FIRST arranged for staff from U.S. EPA’s Office of Solid Waste to tour a Pennsylvania State University foundry sand cooperative research site in Lancaster County, PA. Many of the same EPA staff members are participating in a joint U.S. EPA-ARS task force developing foundry sand risk assessment guidelines. FIRST initiated a “Soils Tag-On Day” following the 2006 Byproducts Summit in San Francisco. FIRST set up an ad hoc task force with ARS and U.S. EPA to develop the session. FIRST coordinated the speakers and presentations. The additional session included a basic introduction to soil science, an overview of USDA and ARS interest in byproducts, and presentations on opportunities that byproducts present to address agricultural and soils-related problems. ADODR monitoring of the project is accomplished through conference calls and regular e-mails.