SITE DEMONSTRATION OF THE TORONTO HARBOR COMMISSIONERS SOIL RECYCLINGPROJECT

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with th e Toronto Harbour Commissioners (THC), conducted a Superfund Innovativ e Technology Evaluation (SITE) demonstration of the THC Soil Recycle T reatment Train. The treatment train consists of three technologies ope rated in sequence: a soil wash process, a metals removal process, and a biological treatment process. The THC conducted an extensive demonst ration of the treatment train at a 55 tons per day pilot plant in orde r to evaluate an approach for remediation of industrial/commercial sit es that are situated in the Toronto Port Industrial District (PID). Th ree soils were processed during the THC demonstration. The EPA SITE de monstration project examined, in detail, soil processing from one of t he sites being evaluated as part of the overall THC project. Contamina nts included organic compounds and heavy metals. It has been estimated by THC that as much as 2,200,000 tons of soil from locations within t he PID may require some form of treatment due to heavy metal and/or or ganic contamination that resulted from various industrial processing o perations. The objective of the SITE demonstration was to evaluate the ,technical effectiveness of the process in relation to THC's target cr iteria. Gravel and sand that met the THC target criteria for medium to fine soil suitable for industrial/commercial sites was produced. The fine soil from the biological treatment process did not meet the targe t level of 2.4 ppm for benzo(a)pyrene. However, there was a significan t reduction in polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds. The m etals removal process achieved reductions of greater than seventy perc ent for copper, lead, nickel, and zinc.