The Fate of Treated Wood Infrastructure
By Brian S. Tomasovic
ABSTRACT
For more than a century, much of the physical infrastructure used for railway transport, energy, and telecommunications has benefited from the protection of a small group of industrial wood preservatives. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), acting under statutory authority of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”), approved the continued, albeit restricted, pesticidal use of three primary heavy duty woodpreservatives (“HDWPs”). However, the environmental and human health impacts of thetreated wood life-cycle are a subject of continuing controversy. The article identifies treatedwood as a nationally important infrastructural material with a unique cost-benefit paradigm. This article argues for elimination of the “treated articles exemption” and legislative reform of FIFRA to enable direct federal regulation of the use and disposal of treated wood.
For more than a century, much of the physical infrastructure used for railway transport, energy, and telecommunications has benefited from the protection of a small group of industrial wood preservatives. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), acting under statutory authority of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”), approved the continued, albeit restricted, pesticidal use of three primary heavy duty woodpreservatives (“HDWPs”). However, the environmental and human health impacts of thetreated wood life-cycle are a subject of continuing controversy. The article identifies treatedwood as a nationally important infrastructural material with a unique cost-benefit paradigm. This article argues for elimination of the “treated articles exemption” and legislative reform of FIFRA to enable direct federal regulation of the use and disposal of treated wood.