EPA has recently announced it will ban production of CCA wood for residential use. This production ban will be effective Jan 1, 2003, but existing stocks may continue to be sold. The amount which can be produced for "commercial" uses is not specified.

Lumber yards across the country are converting to alternative wood preservative treatments that do not use arsenic. Home Depot has said it will begin converting as quickly as possible, and will not buy any new stocks of CCA wood.

One of the more popular Alternative Treatments is ACQ which stands for Ammoniacal Copper Quaternary. Instead of Arsenic, a quaternary solution is used, which is a surfactant/cleaner. Several manufacturers now use this and related treatments, see your favorite search engine for more information on this product.

CCA Wood Disposal Methods

With the upcoming ban on CCA wood production for residential use, the problem shifts to disposal. What is the safest way to dispose of this huge volume of lumber which cannot be burned? Throwing it in the landfill may be a ticking time bomb, as no one knows if it will leech into underground water supplies. Inclusion of a disposal method here is presented as a public service only, not an endorsement, and I have not used the services of any of these labs.

Detection

Detection of Arsenic in wood is difficult by strict visual methods: after years of exposure treated and non-treated wood begin to look alike. However, a company called Austin Automation has a process that is able to identify CCA treated products in roughly 1 second despite wetness, dirt or paint that may be applied during use or disposal. Hence its ideally suited for high volume wood collection/processing facilities: mulch facilities, C&D facilities, and WTE (waste to energy) plants.

Extraction

Extraction is the physical, accelerated leeching of CCA from the treated timber. Here is a link to an article on this: Dr. Oskoui claims a method that extracts arsenic, chromium and copper from the wood.

Pyrolysis

Chartherm has developed a system to recycle old CCA wood through another method, Pyrolysis. Scrap CCA wood is carbonized, and the heavy metals separated out of the resulting charcoal. This process has good potential, and is certainly better than disposing of CCA wood in a landfill without knowing exactly what would become of it.

Arsenic Removal Systems

If you want to remove Arsenic, heavy metals, lead which is already in water supplies, you can check some of these resources. Inclusion here is as a public service only, not an endorsement, and I have not used the services of any of these labs.

Krudico, Inc.
Provides systems to remove As3 and As5 from Water. They offer Greensand filtration, Anion exchange, Coagulation and Alumina Treatment.

If you would like to be added to this page, drop me a note with your link and a short paragraph. Contact me by e-mail: Richard Martin .

It is our intention to have this a completely factual forum for the discussion of the risks and benefits of CCA and other pressure treated woods. If you would like to contribute, correct errors, have an idea, gripe, link or comment, contact me, I want to make this a balanced public forum, and as factual as possible. I would be happy to add your comments or counterpoint to our comment page.

Liability: This site is intended as a discussion site only to present only factual information about arsenic and its effects on the environment. This site is not intended to either promote or denigrate any product over any another. The Author assumes no liability beyond the liability to correct material facts in error.

Richard Martin
Austin, Texas USA 78703
Page updated: July 2002

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