GRAIN CHARACTERISTICS REVEAL NATURE OF POLLUTANTS IN GOLDMAN PARK, MIDDLETOWN, OHIO: PROBABLE CONNECTIONS TO AN ADJACENT STEEL FACILITY

Goldman Park is immediately north east of a large AK Steel manufacturing facility, the last large steel plant of its kind in southwestern Ohio. The nature of particulate pollution from this facility is poorly constrained. Of particular interest is the nature and extent of pollution in Goldman Park because of extensive public use. Sediment samples were obtained from six different baseball fields, two playgrounds, three parking lots and a street that connects them. Selected samples were studied to characterize grain size distribution using sieve analysis. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to identify pollutant grains. Grain size data was processed in Gradistat, a Microsoft Excel grain size statistics package. Histograms, cumulative and distribution curves of particulate sizes for the samples were determined. Both unimodal and multimodel grain size distributions for the street and baseball field samples occur. There is no distinct pattern between the histograms of the street and field samples. SEM data indicate that anhedral, conchoidal particles of Fe-Cr rich steel material are common in street sediment close to the steel facility. Such grains vary in size from ~30 to 60 microns. Particulates of copper and zinc alloy were also identified and measure from approximately ~30 to 45 microns in diameter. Coal spherules were recognized and are commonly ~30 microns in diameter. Results thus far indicate that pollutant grains are larger that PM10 and appear to pose less of a direct inhalation hazard but still pose risk as an an ingestion hazard, particularly for children. Further work to screen for smaller pollutant particles with transmission electron microscopy is planned as well as direct sampling for air particulate. This work explains the origin of Cr in the local environment as being derived from steel particulate presumably from the AK steel site. Further work is underway to determine pollutant provenance.