Tony Frantz is getting even with a nasty chemical called creosote. In 2001 he was poisoned by the noxious substance, which was a popular wood preservative for over a century.
“It put me in the hospital for a long time,” he said.
The experience spurred Frantz on a massive clean-up mission. Since his run-in with the chemical, he’s removed more than 2 million pounds of creosote-treated wood and debris from Puget Sound beaches.
Creosote treated wood peppers Whidbey beaches and can be found among piles of driftwood across Puget Sound. This is a problem, said Nathan Rice, a restoration technician for Washington State Department of Natural Resources, because these logs blend in with the naturally-occurring driftwood.
“We don’t want kids building driftwood structures out of it, or people using it for beach fires,” he said. “It creates dioxin when it’s burned along with all the other nasty chemicals coming off of it.”
According to the Puget Sound Creosote Awareness Project, creosote is in a family of chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and contains as many as 10,000 chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens.”
Rice said the creosote-treated wood — old pier pilings, docks, telephone poles and railroad ties — are easy to identify. The treatment only penetrates a few inches into the wood, so the center often rots away. The toxic wood can also be spotted by its darker coloration. If the chemical isn’t visually identified, it can usually be pinpointed by its smell.
“I’ve been smelling it on the beach my whole life,” he said. “It’s kind of part of the beach environment.”
The up-side to this mess is that creosote is no longer allowed for residential use and is restricted for commercial use, he said.
“Tony Frantz has been instrumental in raising awareness,” Rice said of Frantz’s work to remove toxic wood from area shorelines.
At one point, Frantz pulled a media stunt to bring awareness to the amount of creosote treated wood polluting the beaches by tying red balloons to creosote logs.
The stunt drew a lot of attention, he said.
Frantz spent the day at Windjammer Park with his crew on Tuesday removing more contaminated logs. So far, he has completed 15 jobs for the state.
In 2005, the Washington State Senate honored Frantz’s work with Senate Resolution 8668, recognizing his efforts to remove creosote-soaked logs from Puget Sound, naming him “Mr. Creosote.”
