I'm not disagreeing with either Jerry, Paul, Bob, or Carolyn ; )
>In California the cost to transport and dispose of 3 gallons of
> toxic waste to a Class 1 hazardous waste dump site such as
> the one in Kettleman City would run into the hundreds of dollars.
>
Most towns that I know of in Calif have once or twice a year hazardous waste
days, as mentioned by Jerry and Bob for their states.
>
> > treated with Creosote / Pentachlorophenol decades ago and
> which didn't cause environmental problems.
If they didn't cause problems, they wouldn't likely have been outlawed. As
Jerry says, it's a persistence issue. As Carolyn implies, the chemicals can
leach into ground water or surface water, and cause problems for aquatic
life.
Penta is quite toxic to plants, as I found out when I made a beautiful
wooden planter for Mothers Day years ago, and painted it with penta. It
killed every plant that we put into it, despite changing the soil.
Creosote can biodegrade in soil. Penta is much less likely to.
"Shake flask studies examined the rate and extent of biodegradation of
pentachlorophenol (PCP) and 42 components of coal-tar creosote present in
contaminated groundwater recovered from the American Creosote Works
Superfund site, Pensacola, Fla. The ability of indigenous soil
microorganisms to remove these contaminants from aqueous solutions was
determined by gas chromatographic analysis of organic extracts of biotreated
groundwater. Changes in potential environmental and human health hazards
associated with the biodegradation of this material were determined at
intervals by Microtox assays and fish toxicity and teratogenicity tests.
After 14 days of incubation at 30 degrees C, indigenous microorganisms
effectively removed 100, 99, 94, 88, and 87% of measured phenolic and
lower-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and
S-heterocyclic, N-heterocyclic, and O-heterocyclic constituents of creosote,
respectively. However, only 53% of the higher-molecular-weight PAHs were
degraded; PCP was not removed. Despite the removal of a majority of the
organic contaminants through biotreatment, only a slight decrease in the
toxicity and teratogenicity of biotreated groundwater was observed."
Mueller (1991) Biodegradation of creosote and pentachlorophenol in
contaminated groundwater: chemical and biological assessment.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 1991 May; 57(5): 1277–1285.
So, I would be less concerned about the creosote than the penta. The danged
chlorine molecules just give it such a long toxic life. Even if you treat
wood that won't be exposed to the outside environment (such as under a
house), someday, someone is going to have to deal with that wood. If it's
burnt or composted, the penta will be released to some extent into the
environment.
Back in the day, I used to set door jambs at piecerate in housing tracts.
We used a flat pencil to measure the reveal, and held the pencil in our lips
when our hands were full. We noticed that our lips would start burning
after a while. We finally found out that the jambs had been treated with
Woodlife, which was a common preservative applied to protect the jambs until
they were painted. Don't know how much I ingested. Probably why I get
cranky sometimes.
Randy Oliver
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