P^7^ INVESTIGATIONS OF ISBN 0-7778-0788-2 INVESTIGATIONS OF TREE FOLIAGE CONTAMINATION IN THE VICINITY OF CANADA METAL COMPANY LIMITED, TORONTO, 1986 - 1991 MARCH 1993 © Cette publication technique n'est disponible qu'en anglais. Copyright: Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1993 This publication may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes wwiitthh aaopoprrooDprriiaattee aattttrriibbuuttiioonn.. PffiS 2272 E^ESTIGATIONS OF TREE FOLIAGE CONTAMINATION IN THE VICINITY OF CANADA METAL COMPANY LIMITED, TORONTO, 1986 - 1991 Report prepared by: William I. Gizyn Phytotoxicology Section Air Resources Branch Ontario Ministry ofthe Environment ARB-040-92-Phyto 1311 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 . Canada Metal Company Limited: Process 1 1 .2 Environmental Monitoring and Remediation 1 2 PHYTOTOXICOLOGY INVESTIGATIONS, 1986 THROUGH 1991 2 2 CMC Tree Foliage Survey Design 2 . 2.2 Sample Collection, Processing and Analysis 2 2 Gerrard Street Control Area Survey 5 . 3 AIR QUALITY MONITORING 5 3.1 Suspended Particulate Sampler Locations 5 3.2 Dustfall Sampler Locations 6 4 RESULTS OF TREE FOLIAGE CONTAMINANT SURVEY 6 44..2 ALnetaidmoinny,TreAerseFnoilciagaend Cadmium in Tree Foliage 58 5 LEAD IN FOLIAGE TRENDS NEAR CMC AND IN THE GSCA 9 6 LEAD IN SUSPENDED PARTICULATES 11 7 LEAD IN DUSTFALL 14 8 LEAD IN TREE FOLIAGE AND AIR QUALITY MEASUREMENTS 15 9 LEAD VERSUS ANTIMONY AND ARSENIC IN TREE FOLIAGE 17 10 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 18 . 11 REFERFENCES 19 ARB-040-92-PHYTO 2 . . 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Canada Metal Company Limited: Process Canada Metal Company Limited (CMC) operates a lead smelting, refining and fabrication facility at 721 Eastern Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. The raw material for these operations is scrap lead, primarily lead from used lead-acid batteries. Whole bat- teries are not handled at this facility. Batteries are crushed and the lead plates extracted elsewhere. Scrap lead is fed into a blast furnace, along with coke, limestone and scrap iron. In this environment, lead oxide is reduced to metallic lead, while sulphur from battery acid is trapped by the iron. Two baghouses control particulate emissions from the smelting operation. The trapped dust is fed back into the furnace The impure lead is cast into blocks and subjected to refin- ing, alloying or casting or is oxidized to produce lead oxides. Various other baghouses, dust collectors and air filtration systems are used to control dust emissions from these processes as well as losses during bulk truck loading of lead oxide. The above information was summarized from an environmental audit report prepared by SENES Consultants Limited (Ref. 3) and commissioned by CMC. 1 Environmental Monitoring and Remediation . Concern over releases of lead or lead compounds to the envi- ronment has prompted continuous monitoring by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) This monitoring has been conducted . primarily by two offices of the MOE: Central Region Abatement East, and Air Resources Branch. The Central Region maintains a network of suspended particulate and dustfall monitors in the vicinity of CMC. The material collected by these monitors is analyzed for lead. Since 1972, the Phytotoxicology Section, Air Resources Branch has conducted annual collections of tree foliage. These foliar samples were analyzed for lead and other metals. Other Phytotoxicology investigations have included soil collection and analyses and the use of moss bags (Sphagnum moss in nylon mesh bags) as passive accumulators of airborne metals. The most recent report on Phytotoxicology Section investigations near the CMC facility discussed data from 1983, 1984 and 1985 (Ref. 2) Because of evidence of significant contamination of soil, allegedly caused by emissions from CMC, as well as other urban sources, a large scale soil replacement project was undertaken on residential and public properties in 1987 and 1988. ARB-040-92-PHYTO . . 2 PHYTOTOXICOLOGY INVESTIGATIONS, 1986 THROUGH 1991 This report will present and discuss the results of Phyto- toxicology Section investigations conducted in 1986 through 1991. During this period soil sampling was conducted by an environmental consulting company in preparation for the remedi- ation project. Consequently, the Phytotoxicology Section moni- tored lead and other metal contaminants in tree foliage only. 2.1 CMC Tree Foliage Survey Design A network of sample trees located within 750 metres of CMC which had been established and sampled prior to 1986, were vis- ited in the month of September of 1986 to 1991 (except 1988) This network is displayed in Figure 1. The majority of these tree foliage collection sites are located on residential proper- ties, usually in front yards, in the neighbourhood immediately north of CMC. Other sites included a park, school and industrial/commercial properties. This area is generally known as 'South Riverdale' The tree species used in these surveys differ from site to site. While this feature is not desirable in such surveys, it was necessary due to a lack of one common species throughout the survey area. During the period covered by this report, and prior, it may have been necessary to relocate a sampling site a short distance due to the loss of a sample tree. Occasionally, a different species had to be selected to maintain the integrity of the network, especially as a mechanism to track temporal trends in tree foliage contamination. However, the majority of trees and sites have remained unchanged since 1981. Therefore, this data base is particularly useful for making annual compari- sons of the variation in metal deposition. To place the details of this survey on the record. Table 1 identifies the species sampled between 1981 (since this report will discuss trends from this date) and 1991. Table 1 also notes instances where sampling of a replacement tree of the same spe- cies commenced, accompanied by a minor change in sampling loca- tion. Where sampling of a new species commenced, a minor change in location is implied. Between 1981 and 1991, of the first 20 stations listed, three species (and locations) changes were necessary. Three other stations were relocated slightly but retained the same species. The first 20 stations only were used in temporal trend discussions since these are the only stations sampled in each year from 1981. 2.2 Sample Collection, Processing and Analysis Sample collection consisted of cutting branches from the sides of trees facing CMC with pruning poles, removing the foliage and placing this foliage into polyethylene bags along with sample number tags. Duplicate samples from each tree were collected in 1986 through 1991. ARB-040-92-PHYTO