Wilmette could enact a ban on the sale and use of coal tar sealants, materials made of a coal byproduct and used to seal cracks in pavement, but which some scientific studies suggest can damage human health and the aquatic environment, before the end of this month.
An ordinance preventing the use of such sealants was introduced at the village board’s Feb. 14 meeting, after having been recommended by the board’s administrative committee last month. The ordinance is up for final adoption at the board’s next meeting on Feb. 28.
The committee’s review came after the board routed the question to it last December, and on the heels of research done last year by the village’s environmental and energy commission on the issue.
The proposed ban on selling sealants with coal tar in them would not hurt Wilmette businesses, according to village staff who helped with the research, since those that staff checked with, such as John Millen Hardware, don’t carry the products.
Village staff and members of the environmental and energy commission also noted that asphalt sealants, which contain far fewer of the potentially damaging chemicals found in coal tar sealants, can be used to do the same job for about the same cost and efficiency.
Winnetka passed a coal tar sealant ban in 2014, and Highland Park passed one in January of this year, according to the report that trustees received in their meeting packet.
The ordinance banning sale of coal-tar sealants in Wilmette would also prevent contractors from using them to seal cracks in parking lots or driveways. The ordinance sets fines for using coal tar sealants.
Roughly 40 residents emailed the village supporting the ban, and three people emailed their opposition to it, according to information in the board’s meeting packet.
Although the board didn’t vote on the proposal last week, they heard at length from two people arguing against it. Chicago-based attorney David Kanter, representing the Pavement Coatings Technology Council, a Virginia-based trade association of sealant manufacturers, and Anne LeHuray, the council’s executive director, both spoke.
Kanter, who said he attended the January committee meeting where the ban was reviewed, said the village should leave controls on coal tar sealants to the state, and added that the chemical compounds found in coal tar, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, can also be found in burning wood, vehicle emissions and roasted coffee, among other materials.
LeHuray answered questions from Village President Bob Bielinski about research done in the 1980s and 1990s on the potential dangers of PAHs carried in house dust, and eventually acknowledged that new studies, while saying that PAHs might be less dangerous than once thought by the scientific community, have not exonerated the chemicals entirely.
Lake Avenue resident Amanda Nugent asked board members to approve the ban, noting that chains such as Lowes and Home Depot no longer carry sealants with coal tar. LeHuray had previously said the chains’ decisions were made after advocacy groups had threatened boycotts.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
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