Copper sulphate is, as you mentioned, unpleasant stuff in its pure crystal
form, but is also readily soluble in water. As a result, I would assume
that by now it has been sufficiently distributed through the privy soils
that I doubt it's present in any concentrations that you should be
concerned about beyond wearing long sleeves and gloves while digging and
screening. They put the stuff in kids' chemistry sets, so it isn't
exceptionally dangerous if you take basic precautions. As Bill said, you
could always get a bucket auger down there and pull some soil samples.
Since you only need to look for copper, pXRF might be a cheap and easy way
to check concentrations without running a full geochem suite.


On Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 8:16 PM David Raymond Carlson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm planning on conducting my dissertation project at a Japanese American
> sawmill town community in Western Washington, and I had a quick
> safety-related question. There are a few depressions we identified through
> surface survey that may be privies, and I'd like to excavate one or two of
> them.
>
> However, I had two general concerns:
>
> 1. This community (and the sawmill company town it was a part of) were
> subject to a health scare, and the City of Seattle Board of Health got
> involved. The Board recommended that all dry closets be disinfected once
> per week with a "saturated solution of sulphate of copper", or copper
> sulphate. Suffice it to say, copper sulphate is unpleasant stuff, and I
> worry about whether or not any of that solution (or perhaps just an excess
> of copper?) is in the privies and, if so, how to deal with the health
> hazard. If it is, I'm at a loss for how to deal with it.
>
> Does anyone have any advice/suggestions? Or for that matter, know if copper
> sulphate sticks around for very long? I assume that even if it degrades
> somehow, the copper is still around. Worst-case scenario, I just avoid
> digging in the privies, but if I can manage it, that information would be
> very helpful.
>
> 2. Does anyone have any good suggestions on literature for safety issues
> around privies in general? I've searched, but can't find any (though I did
> find one work on safety in archaeology that's been helpful).
>
> Thanks for any help you can give!
>
> --David
>
> =====================================================
> David Carlson, M.A.
> Co-Principal Investigator, *Issei* at Barneston Project
> Project Website: *http://sites.uw.edu/davidrcn
> <http://sites.uw.edu/davidrcn>*
> Email: davidrcn[at]uw.edu
>
> PhD. Candidate, Archaeology Program
> Department of Anthropology
> University of Washington
> Personal Website: http://davidrcarlson.net
>
> <http://uw.edu>
>
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