Treated lumber question

[horseranch]

We have a wire mesh fence with treated wood posts set every 12 feet, which was built about 4 years ago. Is there some way to deal with the arsenic, without yanking the fence out (it's a LOT of fencing)? And how far from the fence does the contamination probably spread (it's in grey clay soil)? There are no visible signs of poisoning -- there's some grass and some small trees/shrubs that survive fine along the fenceline.

I'd like to plant some blackberries along the fenceline, but I don't want to be feeding my family arsenic for desert :(

[ZIPPER]

HorseRanch:

This is my 'seat of the pants' approach to your concerns. :roll:

As I understand it, your wood post are on 12' centers and the fence is wire.
How many post are there? This will determine how much wood surface is in the ground. I would say that you have very little contact with the soil and that they have been in for sometime.

I don't know what the leaching factor is for this wood but would assume there is very little wicking now.

To me, the biggest concern would be with body contact such as with playground equipment. Breathing in the saw dust during construction is bad news even the saw dust on the ground; place a tarp on the ground where you are cutting the lumber and do not burn. Use a simple dust mask, shower when you are done for the day and keep the clothes separate from regular wash.

Atleast by the end of the year, this PT lumber will no longer be available.

Perhaps someone else has some scientific data on the leaching into the soil. You might find some data at the EPA web site.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

If you want to see what the damage can look like, I'll show you. I only recently put two and two together and realized that the persistently dead spot on my lawn was where I sawed the lumber I made the treated wood arbor out of last year. It's the same spot I sawed the lumber I made my kids' treated wood tree house. That's the spot where the sawdust went. What a dummy :oops: !

I'm probably going to incite the wrath of HG on this, but I think if you're not seeing dead grass around the posts, you're not getting enough leaching to be concerned about. The lumber I used most recently was soaking wet. with the chemical treatment. In fact, even the place where I laid the lumber down in the yard as a staging area died this year. I have an 8 foot long, 1 foot wide dead spot. Had I used the kiln dried lumber ($$$), I'm pretty sure the 8 foot long spot would not have happened. It might be that the other dead spot would not have occurred, either. Anyway, I'm treating with compost and corn meal to replenish and feed the microbes. It's working well, but then again, I'm growing grass, not blackberries.

If you are really concerned and have plants or grass growing at the base of the fence posts now, send a soil sample and plant samples to the Texas Plant and Soil Test Lab. Tell them what you have going on, what you want to do, and ask what to do about it. They're the only soil testing lab I would trust. Their prices are only slightly higher than other soil test labs, but they do a lot more testing routinely that would greatly increase the cost at the other labs.

[horseranch]

Thanks, y'all. It's 600 feet of fenceline (50 posts), so I really don't want to tear it up unless we have to. I'll check out EPA's website. I just talked to the folks at Texas Plant & Soil - they aren't set up to test for arsenic yet, but should be in just a couple of weeks. So we'll see how far the stuff has leached out.

Luckily, when we put up the fence, we didn't cut any of the posts, so there was no sawdust -- one thing to be grateful for, I'm realizing!

[rpwarrior]

Howard has mentioned a few times that there is sealant or paint for PT wood. I don't remember the name of the product or where to buy it. But I would sure like the info!

[Tony M]

rpwarrior-
I believe the name of the sealant is Ready Seal. I'm not sure who carries it but try the regulars, Rohdes, Green Mama's, Redenta's.
Tony M

[ZIPPER]

HorseRancher:

Try these two sites for additional info:
http://www.americanpoleandtimber.com/flash/fchemicals.htm

http://www.preservedwood.com/news/news.html

First is a source for the new lumber coming after the first of the year and the second has articles about how bad the old type is.

[horseranch]

Thanks, Zipper