HUNTINGTON BEACH : Minimal Risk Seen in Rebuilding Pier

In demolishing the city pier, workers will chop hundreds of wooden planks coated with a hazardous substance, which could minimally contaminate the surrounding surf, according to an environmental impact report.

The study concludes that the threat of creosote pollution is slight, but that it is one of several “unavoidable environmental risks” when the pier reconstruction project begins Oct. 1.

Although most of the 76-year-old pier is constructed of concrete, the platform underside and some support braces are made of wood saturated with creosote, a black, tarlike goop once commonly used to protect telephone poles and railroad tracks from weather.

As the planks are dismantled and cut, the sawdust could sully the waters below with the hazardous, petroleum-based material, city engineer Bob Eichblatt said Tuesday. To minimize the dust, the wood will be wetted and cut “as little as possible,” and workers who may be exposed to creosote will wear rubber gloves and masks, the report said. The removed planks and soiled gloves will be disposed into Bee Canyon Sanitary Landfill, a hazardous waste dump.

Eichblatt said that because the wooden planks are so old, the contamination risk is minimal.

“There would be more of a danger, I would think, if we were dealing with (planks) freshly covered with creosote,” he said.

The remains of the pier’s concrete, meanwhile, may be added to an artificial reef about three miles off Bolsa Chica State Beach. City officials are studying that proposal, which would create a haven for fish while diverting tons of concrete from landfills.