The state of California has introduced a bill that addresses the handling of wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA).
According to Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA) executive director William Turley, California Assembly Bill 1367 is legislation to reauthorize a waiver process whereby the state’s Department of Toxics can grant waivers for certain types of low-level hazardous waste, such as pressure-treated wood, to be disposed of in Class 3 lined waste dumps rather than Class 1 hazardous waste facilities.
The department long had the ability to grant such waivers (and did so), but when its authority to do so ran out last year, it needed to be renewed. But the bill has been amended to limit applicability to waivers of household hazardous waste only, according to Turley.
Hence, he says, if passed, no waiver is possible and pressure treated/chemically-treated wood will have to be separated from all scrap wood and handled like hazardous waste by contractors and recyclers. It also will require that this type of wood be dumped only at Class 1 facilities, of which there are only three in the state, all in Southern California, says Turley.
It costs on average $300 per ton to dump at Class 1 facilities, compared to $40 per ton at Class 3 facilities, according to the CMRA. This figure doesn’t include the extra hauling costs.