Ground Water Contamination at Wood Treatment Facilities

Abstract

Ground water contamination profiles from five wood treatment facilities across the country have been compared. The distributions of organic priority pollutants at the five sites are similar, with the most common contaminants being polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and phenolic compounds. These contaminants are the predominant constituents of creosote, which is a common wood preservative. Inorganic contaminants have also been detected at these sites, but their distributions are not uniform across all sites. The distributions of the organic priority pollutants at the five sites appear to differ from those at other hazardous waste sites. Suggested recommendations for choosing monitoring parameters for wood treatment facilities are presented.

Atsdr Evaluation of Health Effects of Chemicals. Iv. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): Understanding a Complex Problem

“…Groundwater samples from the site of a Seattle coal and oil gasification plant which ceased operation in 1956 were found to contain acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and chrysene at concentrations ranging from not detected (detection limit 0.005 mg/L) to 0.25, 0.18, 0.14, 0.13, 0.05, 0.08, and 0.01 mg/L, respectively (Tumey and Goerlitz, 1990). Individual PAHs in the groundwater from 5 U.S. wood treatment facilities were reported at average concentrations of 57 ppb (0.057 mg/L) for benzo[a]pyrene to 1825 ppb (1.8 mg/L) for phenanthrene (Rosenfeld and Plumb, 1991). An evaluation of the analytical data from 358 hazardous waste sites with over 5,000 wells indicated that anthracene, fluoranthene, and naphthalene were detected (practical quantitation limit, 10-200 pg/L) in groundwater from at least 0.1 % of the sites in three of the ten EPA Regions into which the United States is divided (Garman et al, 1987).…”

The Gulf Oil Spill

“…Groundwater samples from the site of a Seattle coal and oil gasification plant which ceased operation in 1956 were found to contain acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and chrysene at concentrations ranging from not detected (detection limit 0.005 mg/L) to 0.25, 0.18, 0.14, 0.13, 0.05, 0.08, and 0.01 mg/L, respectively (Tumey and Goerlitz 1990). Individual PAHs in the groundwater from 5 U.S. wood treatment facilities were reported at average concentrations of 57 ppb (0.057 mg/L) for benzo [a]pyrene to 1,825 ppb (1.8 mg/L) for phenanthrene (Rosenfeld and Plumb 1991). …”

An Overview of the Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Freshwater System

“…Naphthalene, an ingredient in dyeing industry, aluminium smelting industry and lubricant oils as well as wood procession industry, enters into water, mainly through discharges and spills during the storage, transportation and disposal of fuel oil and coal tar and incomplete combustion of organic compounds [27]. Anthracene releases from dye and pesticide manufacture, from exhaust of engines, from the incomplete combustion of organic compounds [28].…”