ANTIOCH (KPIX) — Do-it-yourselfers might want to reconsider all those backyard renovation jobs. The state has banned the disposal of a prevalent creating material and it is leaving homeowners and contractors with no place to dump it.
In accordance to the Office of Harmful Substances Manage:
“Treated wooden squander comes from previous wooden that has been addressed with chemical preservatives. These substances help safeguard the wooden from insect assault and fungal decay when it is remaining used. Fence posts, sill plates, landscape timbers, pilings, guardrails, and decking, to title a handful of, are all illustrations of chemically dealt with wood.”
Earlier, the state furnished a variance to allow for landfills to acknowledge treated wood waste. But, with the new 12 months, that variance expired and now there seems to be no one in the Bay Space who can lawfully take it.
“Now that they are closing up the dumps — not allowing this stuff coming in any longer — there’s no position to dump,” explained Robert Bernsten, owner of Have Instruments Will Journey Fencing.
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Handled Wooden Disposal Ban
Robert Berntsen, a fencing and deck contractor in Contra Costa County, points to a pile of treated wooden scraps that he can not lawfully dispose of. (CBS)
That is a big challenge for Berntsen, a fencing and deck contractor in East Contra Costa County. He’s a comparatively little operator but the wood scraps are already piling up at his Antioch property.

“All these compact close items are just from the kicker boards and the tops of the 4x4s that I slice. In which do I convey it?” he questioned.
The solution, in accordance to the county’s waste authority, is nowhere. The California Department of Toxic Substances Regulate says the wood contains harmful substances and are unable to be burned, dumped or even still left on the floor for additional than 90 days. It can only be legally transported by a accredited poisonous hauler and taken only to a Course 1 Toxic Squander Web page or out of point out. That is an untenable circumstance for Luis Rojas whose Bayside Fencing Co. collects about a dump-truck-load of addressed wooden waste every working day.
“We need a remedy for this, normally it could possibly set some men out of business enterprise, you know? This is the lumber that we use every single working day and this is the lumber that we’re getting down from people’s homes,” Rojas mentioned.
It is in particular galling to contractors, mainly because strain-taken care of wood is even now remaining broadly bought at dwelling improvement merchants and lumber yards. It’s about fifty percent the price tag of redwood and is greater at resisting rot when in speak to with the ground.
“It’s a great products but what do you do with the squander?” Roberts said.
The DTSC looks to be searching for an out, announcing they will give brief-time period variances to squander services to give lawmakers a possibility to craft a remedy. People might start out on March 1. Till then, although, the waste wood will continue to pile up, even as extra and a lot more of it is currently being bought.
A number of legislators are anxious the ban will lead to illegal dumping and better toxic publicity so they’ve introduced AB 332 as an unexpected emergency statute that would re-establish the previous disposal rules indefinitely.