Tesla + Green Roof + Coal Tar, Does Not = Sustainability

Site of 2017 Emerging Contaminants Conference Surrounded by…Toxins! Any facility that claims to be “sustainable,” but uses coal tar sealers on their parking lots is an insult to the word and to the professionals who work hard to make these projects healthier for the occupants and the planet. You know, I don’t point out every […]

Industry “No Risk” Claims Pure Fiction

On February 24th the Daily North Shore (Illinois) published an opinion piece by the coal tar industry trade group entitled, “Sealcoating Ban Lacks Research.” Too bad the paper doesn’t have a fiction section because that is where that opinion piece belongs. The industry, namely the Pavement Coatings Technology Council, makes a slough of false statements in […]

“Precautionary Principle” No Longer Applies to Coal Tar Sealers

Once appropriate, the use is obsolete Back in 2003 the City of Austin was confronted with a perplexing, new hypothesis: high levels of stream contamination were coming from a common, unrecognized source – coal tar pavement sealers. The City did what good pollution investigators do. They did research. They talked to experts. They had conversations […]

FREE PRODUCT TESTING = NO MORE EXCUSES!

One of the latest articles on this site revealed the chemical concentrations of asphalt sealcoat for the first time. No actual product testing was done by me or anyone associated with this website. It was an accumulation of testing data which had been done by others. But some want additional independent testing of these concentrations. […]

US EPA Debunks Industry’s Witch Hunt Conspiracy Theory

In a recent letter, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supported the coal tar sealer research findings of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in spite of an industry complaint. The industry had sought to have a publication by the EPA removed from their website. The publication, which we have linked to here, is […]

WEF Exclusive: Coal Tar Sealers Past, Present & Future

The following article appeared in the October/November 2015 Issue of World Water Stormwater Management Magazine, a Water Environment Federation (WEF) publication and is presented here with the permission of WEF, one of the world’s leading organizations in water management with about 34,000 members. Coal Tar Sealers: Past, Present and Future by Tom Ennis on Scribd

Chicago Suburbs’ Unexpected Encounter with Coal Tar Sealers

A few years ago, a watershed management group in the Chicago suburbs set out to find why their streams poorly supported aquatic life. They expected to find that the main culprits were heavy metals, which are common urban pollutants. Instead they found the principal pollutant was coming from coal tar pavement sealers. Recently Stephen McCracken, […]

Graphical Gateway to Coal Tar Research

Sometimes it’s good to step back from the details and get a fresh perspective on the research that has been done on this pollution problem over the last 20 years. Here’s our take on it. This graphic, which was originally produced by the City of Austin, has been updated to show the representative research that […]