Cleaning Up Contaminated Wood-Treating Sites
Abstract
N 1994 THE Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was asked to evaluate technical alternatives to incineration for cleaning up the Texarkana Wood Preserving Company Superfund site, in Texarkana, Texas. The 25-acre site, a former wood-treating facility in Bowie County, Texas, became an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site in 1986 (27). Wood products had been treated there with preservative chemicals over many decades. These activities left behind chemical preservatives as contaminates in soil, sludge, sediment, and groundwater. Using information available i the late 1980s, the EPA selected incineration in a 1990 record of decision (ROD) to clean up soil, sludge, and sediments contaminated with wastes from wood-treating activities at Texarkana. However, public opposition has prevented incineration from being used at this site. Recently EPA funds that had been allocated to building and operating an incinerator were returned, and today the only work at the site is ongoing environmental monitoring and interim analyses. OTA was asked to find and evaluate possible alternatives to incineration that might be more acceptable to residents who live nearby. This report identifies technologies available for organic hazardous waste cleanup at wood-treating sites throughout the country. OTA has identified a range of such technologies that have been selected in the past and could be applied to other sites in the future. OTA has not recommended specific technologies for the Texarkana Wood Preserving Company site. The applicability of a technology to a particular Superfund site has to be based on many site-specific factors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA337518
Entities
People
- German Reyes
- Peter Johnson