Roseville, MN: No More Peddling Coal Tar Here!

Earlier today the City of Roseville, Minnesota (pop. 33,660) passed a ban of coal tar containing pavement products.  It becomes the tenth city in Minnesota to pass a ban.  The City Council was told that under new rules, which limit the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in pond sediment, 2 of the last 3 projects were landfilled at an additional expense to the City. 

The problem of coal tar pavement sealants was personally brought before the Roseville City Council by State Representative Bev Scalze in January 2011.  In 2009, she sponsored the statewide legislation that led to an end to the use of this product by Minnesota state agencies and set up a funding mechanism to assist communities with the cleanup of ponds contaminated with PAHs from coal tar sealants.  Scalze said that there are many cities that are going to have to deal with this in the future.

With a high concentration of chain commercial stores, the City will need to work with the chain stores themselves to effectively enforce the ban.  Penalties for violators are stiff, $1,000 plus court costs and maybe 90 days in jail to boot.  Retail sales of coal tar sealants are still allowed with the certification that the material will not be used within the City of Roseville.

The number of US citizens under a coal tar sealant ban now stands at just over 10.3 million people.

Key Long Island County Rejects Coal Tar Sealant Use

Earlier today Suffolk County, New York with a robust population near 1.5 million, passed a ban on the use and sale of coal tar pavement sealants.  This ban marks the second county in the United States to do so.  Under the leadership of the Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer William J. Lindsay, the bill passed the Suffolk County Legislature.

“Suffolk County is proud to join the communities across this country and indeed across the world that have banned coal tar-based sealcoats,” said Lindsay.  “With effective alternatives readily available, there is no reason to allow the use of coal tar-based sealants, which contain large amounts of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and have been proven to be dangerous to humans and a severe threat to marine life of virtually every variety. I hope this will be another step in encouraging the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of coal tar-based sealcoats nation-wide.”

With a long standing tradition of leadership on environmental rules, the Legislature passed the resolution that will go into effect January 1, 2012.  Penalties for the first violation will be $500 and $750 for subsequent ones.  The text of the bill as it was at the time of this writing is located here.

Suffolk County, while more populated than 10 states, ranks as one of the highest in New York agricultural production.  The area is also well-known for its parks and beaches.

This blog covered the introduction of this bill a few weeks ago and can be read at this link.

The passage of this ban raises the population of the US that is under a coal tar sealant ban up to over 10.2 million people.

Congressman Doggett Compliments, But Challenges EPA on Sealants

 

Just a few days ago, Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) delivered a new message to the Administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, complimenting some movement on environmental issues, but pressing the Agency that the work on sealants is far from complete.

EPA efforts that were applauded included attention to polluted runoff from coal tar sealed lots and their 2010 report on the Relative Potency Factors of PAH mixtures.  The problem is that an independent scientific advisory board found some incompleteness with work and recommended additional study be undertaken.  What action and on what timetable this will be done has not been made public.

Congressman Doggett also took the opportunity to remind EPA about the parking lot runoff study promised him in a July 2009 letter.  While it may be a duplication of the work done by the USGS, the City of Austin, the University of New Hampshire, it may yield another data point in our understanding and may give the EPA the justification for further action.  If the EPA is staying close to schedule, then the results will be available this summer.

The Congressman has been a lone, enduring congressional champion of this nationwide problem for many years.  As the bans continue to mount up and the nation's understanding of coal tar sealant pollution increases, Congressman Doggett should be recognized for the quiet vision and resolve we need in our politicians today.

The letter can be read in its entirety at this link.