Photos of Lake Hancock | home
Photos of Lake Hancock
Update! Lake Hancock was cleaned up in the summer of 2006. Crews removed 150 tons of creosoted debris.
Highline Helicopter Service and a crew from State of WA Dept of Natural Resources removed the creosoted pilings from the marsh.
Part of the tonnage removed from the area above.
The following photographs, taken at Lake Hancock, are a visual tutorial about creosoted materials; what they look like and how the surroundings are affected.
Looking into Lake Hancock from the Sound; a rare example of a lowland saltwater to freshwater marsh and estuary.
The northeast corner of Lake Hancock. Massive amounts of creosoted wood gets trapped here with the driftwood after coming through the channel. Most of it never leaves.
Taken in July 2001, Tony sits for a photo with the creosoted wood debris in Lake Hancock. A front page article in the South Whidbey Record was the first to bring to light the infestation of this toxic material.
More than 300 red helium balloons were used to visually show the incredible amount of treated materials in this one location. This was estimated to be only 1/3 of the total number of pieces in the area.
This log is about 50 feet long. The amount of creosote a piling contains varies with the diameter of the piling and the depth of penetration of the creosote when applied. Based on a diameter of 16" and 4" penetration, there are approximately 8.3 gallons of creosote in every 10 foot section of piling. There could be as much as 40 gallons in this one log. One pound or approximately 8 oz. spilled onto the ground requires a phone call to the EPA for immediate clean up. Astoundingly, logs like these, thousands of them, are in and around the lake and all over our beaches. Numerous species of small fish born in the eel grass beds in the estuary are commonly trapped between pilings such as this as they leave the estuary for open water. They then become a contaminated part of the food chain.
On warm, sunny days the creosote liquifies and drips into the marsh below. There are up to 300 chemicals with a combination of 10,000 different compounds.
This close-up of the 12 foot piling pictured below was dripping down both sides of it on this 75 degree day.
As you can see by the driftwood, an extreme tide brings the waters right up to the creosoted piling. It is constantly moving a few feet at a time and leaves these drips everywhere it rests.
As the tidal waters rise, the result is an oily sheen on the surface of the water. Approximately 157 species of migratory birds use this beautiful marshland as a stopover to feed and rest.
The sediment becomes contaminated as well by partially sunken logs.
This one is also dripping coal-tar creosote. (see close-up below)
This is the mouth of the channel that leads to Lake Hancock. These logs are already on their way in and will remain trapped there while they decompose for possibly 50 or more years.
Logs move constantly throughout the estuary with the tides. They can become trapped in the lake and stay longer in the inner estuary (Lake Hancock) where they do the most harm. The inner estuary is a nursery for countless species of marine and wildlife. Spawning salmon and other forage fish lay their eggs in the sand in the immediate vicinity of these toxic logs.
This is an example of how windblown sand helps wears off the outer layers of the log exposing the toxins to the surrounding environment. The dark logs in the background are also creosoted.
This piling is showing the beginning of a shredding process that happens on round rock covered beaches. The outer layers of wood are starting to shred and break off to float away with the next high tide.
This example shows a piling from a jagged rock beach that has shred into thousands of creosoted soaked splinters.
This log is slowly graying on its way to masquerading as innocent "driftwood".
Increased amounts of surface exposure from the creosote happens when the piling hollows out exposing the inner surface of the treated wood. Notice the natural decay taking place on the core at the end. This is the part of the log that the creosote has not permeated.
The log above may eventually look like this as the inner untreated core continues to deteriorate.
Further decomposition.
The piling will eventually end up like this one, with all these creosoted surfaces settling into the marsh's sediment.
Notice the difference in the colors of the two large logs. The untreated log in the rear has moss growing on it and is beginning to turn gray. The treated log in front just floats alongside rubbing off creosote on everything it touches. The short piece is also treated.
Tony is standing on two treated logs. A third piling with rusted steel in it is at the far left of the photo. It's hard to tell them apart from natural driftwood as they have aged in the sun and grayed. Notice the hollowing of the one under Tony's right foot.
The top of this log is darker because at one time it was partially submerged. The slow turning, the heat of the sun and its reflection off the water, and the salt work together to dry out the outer layer concealing the creosote inside. Soon it will look like any other log, just another "harmless" piece of "driftwood", gray in color like all the others on the beach.
Notice the large beam to the right of center. It has undergone the above described process. When a nail was driven into this beam (upper right corner of beam), creosote came oozing out around the nail. When logs like these move around against sharp objects; jagged rocks or each other, more creosote is released.
Even this piling, probably 50 years old, is still showing dark marks from creosote oozing out of it as it is bumped against other jagged driftwood.
Unrelated but still harmful, foam blocks were broken up by wave action into thousands of tiny pieces.
