DEPARTMENT: Office of Sustainability
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Douglas Melnick, Chief Sustainability Officer AICP CNU-A
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-Wide
SUBJECT:
Coal Tar Sealants
SUMMARY:
An Ordinance in the City of San Antonio city limits banning Coal Tar Sealant Pavement Products with an effective date of January 1, 2017 and establishing an administrative penalty.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On November 18, 2014, Councilman Nirenberg submitted a Council Consideration Request to consider a prohibition on coal tar based sealants. Coal tar sealant is the black liquid sprayed or painted on parking lots, driveways, and playgrounds and contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are known cancer causing chemicals. Since 2005, 16 municipalities and 2 counties within the States of Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin, the District of Columbia, and the States of Washington, Minnesota, Edwards Aquifer Authority, City of Austin and most recently City of Annapolis, Maryland and City of San Marcos all have enacted some type of ban. A number of national home-improvement and hardware stores have discontinued coal tar-based sealants. City staff has reviewed and analyzed over eighty white papers, independent studies and articles published by universities, independent researchers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency stating that coal tar sealants are a major source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The US Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences states "Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are known or probable human carcinogens and toxic to aquatic life".
On April 13, 2016, the Transportation Technology and Utilities Committee approved a recommendation by City staff to extend the communications and engagement strategy through May 31, 2016 for stakeholders such as commercial property owners and developers, manufacturing, indu...
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