Geneva slag Legacy-bound

Contractors building two segments of the Legacy Parkway plan to use slag from the now-defunct Geneva Steel site in parts of the road base for the 14-mile highway in Davis County.

The Utah Department of Transportation says that the slag, a waste product of the steelmaking process, will be used in about 5 percent of the road base for Legacy. The slag contains trace amounts of aluminum, silica and lead, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality but is considered an inert, or chemically inactive, material.

The contractors, Ames Contractors and Ames & Wadsworth Contractors, were given approval to use the slag by UDOT. They have not yet begun to use the material on Legacy.

Alan Moore, program manager with the Hazardous Waste Management section of the DEQ, said there is a very small potential for compounds from the slag to leach into groundwater. Given that leaching potential and the sensitivity of the environment where Legacy is being built, it might be a good idea for the state to test the material, Moore said Friday.

"I know with the sensitivity up there, it is definitely something to look at," Moore said.

In 2001, a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and Utahns for Better Transportation halted construction of Legacy Parkway, which is being built near the Great Salt Lake wetlands. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson filed a brief in support of the lawsuit. Last year, the state settled the lawsuit, paving the way for construction on the highway to begin this year.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit said Friday that they were unaware that slag was being used in parts of the road base. Marc Heileson, regional representative for the Sierra Club, said he plans to talk with the UDOT about the issue.

"Hopefully, if this is an issue that has potential hazard to the lake, it will be looked into," he said. "We definitely have concerns if they're using something that will harm the wetlands."

UDOT spokesman Nile Easton said Friday that the agency was certain that the slag from Geneva was safe. The slag was tested by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to see if it leached contaminants, and the material was certified as safe for use as a road base by the Environmental Protection Agency, he said.

In 2000, UDOT used slag from Geneva on an interchange that was rebuilt along I-15 in Utah County. Because slag is a lightweight but strong material, it helps provide stability and lessens settling along a road project, Easton said.