- Store Hours
- Contact Us
- 828.262.5111
Boone Limits Coal Tar Sealants- Fish and River Lovers Celebrate
Cross-posted from Upper Watauga Riverkeeper
Last night (February 15) the Boone Town Council passed strict new regulations aimed to limit the impacts of coal tar based asphalt sealants.
Coal tar based asphalt sealants are terrible for the environment and have serious human health effects because they are a major source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). If you have ever stood in a parking lot that is really black, that is coal tar asphalt sealant, and if it smelled like tar or weird chemicals, those are the PAHs. There is really no reason to use this type of sealant, because asphalt based sealants are the same price and are far less toxic.
Although, the regulations do not outright ban the use of coal tar sealants, they do make it much more difficult. The regulations set up a permitting process, for anyone wishing to apply a pavement sealant. There will be a minimal fee for non coal tar based sealants, and a much higher fee for coal tar sealants. The permitting process is designed to allow for education on pavement sealants, and to ensure that sealants are applied in a safe manner (like when there is no chance of rain). The new permitting process will be implemented April 1, to allow for time to develop education materials and finalize the fee structure.
These new regulations are in response to the Hodges Creek fish kill. This past summer the BB&T on Highway 105 in Boone applied coal tar based asphalt sealant to their parking lot in the rain. The sealant washed off into Hodges Creek, killing all life in the creek until its confluence with Boone Creek, near the mall, 1.5 miles downstream. Shea Tuberty of Appalachian State told the town council that he had done sampling in Hodges Creek in January, little life has returned to the Creek, six months after the spill.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the town council to stand up for clean streams!
Read the original post here:
Boone Limits Coal Tar Sealants- Fish and River Lovers Celebrate
1 Comments
March 17, 2011 12:43 pm
ru4deomcracy
No Change in Amount or Sources of PAHs in Austin, Texas Years After Product Ban
PAH Fingerprints Do Not Identify Pavement Sealants as Source
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — More than two years after Austin, TX banned refined tar sealants, there has been no discernable change in either the amount or sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediment in Austin’s waterways. Austin’s ban went into effect on January 1, 2006.
Results of a study of the ban’s impact were just published in a paper titled Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Austin Sediments After A Ban on Pavement Sealers in Environmental Forensics, the journal of the International Society of Environmental Forensics. Samples were collected from Austin’s streams before the ban, in October 2005, and again after the ban in April 2008. Total concentrations of PAHs in sediments before and after the ban did not change, as might be expected if sealants were the principal source of PAHs in sediments. According to the study’s author, Dr. Robert DeMott, the variation in individual PAHs is expected because PAHs are so common in so many different products. PAHs in the Austin samples were also evaluated using environmental forensics techniques. PAH fingerprinting of sediments collected before and after the ban did not identify any marked changes.
PAHs are everywhere in the environment and are formed by burning organic matter.. PAHs are found in used motor oil, grilled meats and vegetables, exhaust from internal combustion engines and emissions from fossil fuel power plants, forest fires and volcanoes as well as products made from coal and petroleum. The follow-up study of sediments in Austin as well as the results of a PAH fingerprinting study presented at a recent meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) indicate that pavement sealants are not the principal source of PAHs in downstream sediments, as has been suggested by others. Both studies were sponsored by the Pavement Coatings Technology Council, which researches and promotes environmentally responsible practices by sealcoat applicators.
http://www.pavementcouncil.org
Link to the article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15275922.2010.526520
Posting your comment...
Leave A Comment