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An environmental headache is looming in NZ's grape-growing industry as evidence points to long-term health risks from millions of wooden posts treated with copper chrome arsenate (CCA). CCA-treated posts (commonly known as "tanalised") are used to support vineyard trellises and there are now more than 20 million in the ground in NZ. There's growing concern not only about arsenic leaching into soil and groundwater but also how to safely dispose of thousands of broken posts each year.
There's also a potential threat to NZ's wine export industry if the US and Europe decide to use the issue of CCA-treated timber posts as a non-tariff trade barrier, to exclude NZ wines on environment grounds.
A preliminary study last year by HortResearch found CCA is leaching from vineyard posts into soils in Marlborough. NZ's biggest grape-growing region. Soil around 1 in 4 posts tested had arsenic levels above Australian recommended guidelines.
Winemaker Dr Bailey Carrodus, from Victoria's Yarra Yering winery, predicts "the CCA thing is a nightmare in the making. I don't think there's much problem in the handling in the vineyard. The real problem I foresee is disposal of the posts at the end of their lives. They can't just be burnt - arsenic is volatile, and chrome in ash is a nasty problem."
- Article from NZ
Energy & Environment Business Week
Vol.1 No. 33 26/19/05
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