2007 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 29 Jan 2007 05:57:06 -0000
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] "Arsenic in Hurricane Katrina wood debris"
 
Arsenic in Hurricane Katrina wood debris
Treated lumber from houses and other structures destroyed by the hurricane poses a hazardous waste disposal problem.

ERIKA ENGELHAUPT
Environmental Science & Technology
January 24, 2007

Hurricane Katrina left behind an estimated 55 million cubic meters (m3) of tangled debris in Louisiana and Mississippi—enough to cover 150 football fields piled 15 meters high. To add to the disposal problem, much of the lumber in those piles contains arsenic, a known carcinogen.
Katrina debris

The arsenic comes from chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treatments that were applied to wood to protect it against termites and decay, two big problems in the steamy southeastern U.S. that made the pesticide very popular until recently. To sort the good wood from the bad, a team of researchers led by Helena Solo-Gabriele of the University of Miami used handheld X-ray fluorescence devices to make on-the-ground measurements of arsenic in the New Orleans debris. The results were published today on ES&T’s Research ASAP website (DOI: 10.1021/es0622812).

The team sampled more than 200 pieces of lumber at seven sites in New Orleans, including the hard-hit Ninth Ward neighborhood, where piles of housing still remain untouched. From their measurements in New Orleans, they estimate that in total, Katrina debris in Mississippi and Louisiana contained about 1740 metric tons of arsenic from treated wood.

...

For the entire article and a link to the study, see
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/jan/science/ee_katrina.html

--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

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