
7 minute read
ls environmentally friendly new preservative industry friendly?
A CA. CSI's highly touted new wood preservative that lA performs like CCA but contains no chromium or arsenic. Without these chemicals, treated wood can avoid a web of govemment hassles, user handling and disposal concerns and general public uneasiness. And CSI is investing big in their new product.
The only problem is ACQ's main selling point is that ACQ is safer for the environment implying CCA must somehow be dangerous. CCA producers naturally arc up in anns. With dl the paranoia expressed by environmentalists, the media and the government, CCA manufactrners say, the last thing the treated wood industry needs is an attack fron within.
In an exclusive interview, CSI president Steve Ainscough and chief operating officer James Pryzbylinski explain what's behind the ACQ drive and what it means to retailers, their customen and, perhaps, the very futue of the pressure feated wmd industry.
The Merchant Magazine: What is ACQ Preserve?
Steve Ainscough: ACQ Preserve is a preserved wood. ACQ is the active chemical, a chemical new to the industry. Its pupose is to meet new market demands for preservatives more conscious of today's environmental situation.
Merchanfi In formulating ACQ, were you motivated by certain environmental reports or studies?
Ainscough: We were motivated by a couple of things. Tbroughout the'80s, our customers came under greater and greater EPA regulations to bring their producing plants up to new standards that are still changing. The second thing that motivated us is the continuing market research we do on treated wood to find out what consumers are looking for. In the mid to late '80s it began to indicate a greater market need for a different product than CCA. We began to focus our technical work on certain market segments where, say, "environmentally friendly" demand existed.
Merchanh Othermajor CCA-producing chemical companies contend that if ACQ has so many benefits of its own, why does it appear that CSI is concentrating more on criticizing CCA than talking about ACQ? They feel CCA is safe and teste4 and you're going against it. How do you respond to their charges?
Przybylinski: First, I haven't seen where we've distdbuted infonnation, run any advertisements or promotions or published anything that said anything negative about CCA. Wejusthaven't done that. And CCA is still our prinary producl Second, with regard to people saying that CCA is safe, we've never said it's not. We believe thaL properly used, it's safe at the treating plant. CCA treated wood, if properly handled, isn't any problem. But our market research tells us perceptions are out there about components of CCA, so we've designed a product that markets to that perception.
Ainscough: Third, you cannot confuse what we or our competitors say about any product while we're all out there competing in a very tough market in a very tough economy. The fact is that while we've come forward with ACQ, our competitors are also working on new products. Osmose has introduced a new copper-based preservative and will come out with a new product sometime in the future. Likewise we've been picking up information in Europe that Hickson has talked to people about a new product. And the curious thing about all these products, tle common denominator, is no chrome, no arsenic.
Story at a Glance
Will "environmentally friendly" new preservative one day replace CCA? ... the future of ACQ and the treated wood industry ... producers respond to charges of CCA bashing.
The obvious question is if our competilors don't see the need for a new preservative, why would they be doing research into it?
Merchanfi So then you see CCA products as safe. The problem is the public's perception?
Przybylinski: Yes. We don't have a backlog of problems with CCA. We don't see any problem in dealing with CCA for our company or treaters or confractors. But there are perceptions amongst consumers. For instance, if you say do you think arsenic is good or bad, there aren't many people who are going o say, "Oh, it's good! I'd kind of like it around my place." Now whether or not they ever come in contact with arsenic, they have a negative perception of that product. And that product, atsenic, is a componentof ccA.
Merchant: Some lumber refailers fear potential liability from possible leeching of CCA from lumber they sell. Does ACQ address these concems?
Przybylinski: If there were run-off of CCA from wood in a stonn or whatever at the lumberyard, treating site or chemical plant, then there .fi problems we'd have ,r, ilp, covered by any part of EPA's ruling on chemicals, so we wouldn't aim at something that didn't yet exist. While ACQ wasn't designed to address that specific sihration, it helps because its chemicals are not currently considered hazardous waste by EPA.
Merchant: With the push for ACQ, will CSI continue to produce CCA?
Przybylinski: Nodoubtabout it. We still think it's a good producL It has some very specific applications we would like to see continue.
Ainscough: It's quite simple. We're in the business of giving customers what they want. Some customers want CCA and some want an alternative.
Merchant: Do you see ACQ as a substitute product for CCA or a companion to it for the retailer? Will lumber companies have to carry dual inventories?
Przybytinski: It will most likely be more substitute than companion, but thoe will be dual inventories. I don't foresee, at the outset especially, large retailers just saying, "Boom. That's it. I'm going to something else." I think they will test market it in their stores and carry a dual inventory.
Merchant: Is it priced higher than CCA because of fixed costs, so it will continue to be higher, or just due to initial, .Ltt-up costs?
Ainscough: The higher price is determined by higher raw material costs. Projections are that the naterials that go ino ACQ will continue to be somewhat higher priced than the materials that go into CCA.
Merchant: Since ACQ and CCA perform similarly, how will retailers sell a product that is more expensive?
Ainscough: He will have to sell on the benefits of the product itself. And on the fact that it ages to a different color than CCA wood, a more pleasing color most people think. And he is obviously going to sell on the nonarsenic, non-cbrome base.
Merchanh What do you foresee for both ACQ and CCA in the short-tenn and the long-tenn?
Ainscough: The market for CCA treated wood is so large that the initial hit with ACQ Preserve will essentially have no effect on CCA. Further down the road, ACQ will take some share of the treated wood market and continue to grow, because immediate and long-term the regulatory situation surrounding CCA is unlikely to become any easier.
DONT tET ANCIENT IREES FROM THE ANCIENT FOREST DIE A LONETY AND CO TO WASTE. PUT THEM IN A HOME.
(AS 2X4 STUDS, WOOD W|NDOWS, WOOD MOU|D|NGS, WOOD DOORS, ETC.)
Owl Droppings for 1993
by Matt Moulder
This summer rve had the pleasure of taking a tdp to beautiful ldaho. I would like to move there, but the ldahoans dont want me. l'm a Calilomlan. Now, four months later, I lhink I know why people in lhe Noflhwest donl wanl Califomians lo move to their state. It's the election relums that lurn lhem off, especially il you are a lumberman.
Califomia now has two lree hugger sympathizerc for senaton, one of whom bounced 143 checks as a Congresswoman. The congressional district centered around Mendocino County, a fairty heavy lumber producing area, has a lreshman Congressman whose qualificalions and ba*ground are as follows: Has nol held a fulFtime job in three years and was drawing $87 per week unemployment benefits while campaigning for office, advocales growing pt for personal use, admits to being a pt-smoking, anli-war, antidrafl campaigner while in college in the '60s, nanowly missed being recalled as a county superuisor in the early '80s, and last, bul nol least, has an immense dislike for lhe limber industry. All they wanl to do, he says, is "cut, cut, cul." The new representative's name is Dan Hamburg. He replaces Frank Riggs, who was one of the leaders in Congress in the move to fully expose the check bouncers. Riggs, a former policeman, had but one "n€galive" item on hb record, that of having received campaign help from the lumber induslry.
Many in our industry are on pins and needles to find out what lhe posture of the Clinlory'Gore adminislration will be with regard to federal timber harvesting. Can it get qny worse? Three new revelations ars cause for concem: Clinton's favorile magazine is Rolling Stona and his favorite TV network is MTV. His favorite automobile is a tie between the Vollawagen Beetle and the Lexus, both foreign brands. Maybe it could get worse!

San Bernardino County, Califomia, was successful in getting the state to support tax breaks for businesses localing there and they have spenl $175,000 in admin'stration and markeling efforls since lhe area was declared an enterprise zone in 1986. The hopes of area polilicians for induslry moving in were pinned to a large degree on a huge area zoned for heavy industry and expec.ted to support over 20,000 jobs during the next 15 years. Theh aspirations were dashed recenlly, however, with the discovery of, you guessed il, an endangercd species on the prembes, the Delphi Sands Flower Loving Fly.
First it was lhe Califomia Fairy Shrimp and now lhe Flower Loving Fly. Plans for the developmenl arc now |eopardized, as swatting one of these flies wouH be a felony if scientists succted in getting the insect placed on the Federal Endangered Species List.
What's in a name? John Hac*er aced the 150-yard 7th hole al Tijeras Creek Golf Course in Southem Califomia recently.
Feminbt radicals succeeded in getting a Barbie doll recalled because il uttered the words: "Malh b lough."
The lalesl bullfrom Washington, D.C., involves a farm billthat contains a provision for spending $19 million to study "Bovine Emissions of Methane Gas." Who says a line item velo isnl needed!
Pacific Southeast Forest Products
P.O. Box 819, Diamond Springs, Ca. 95619
Larry White
Curt Crane $16 626-4221
Manufacturers: Ponderosa & Sugar Pine Mouldings and Cutstock
Located in the Heart o.f Big Timber Country
SHOWMAN extraordinairs: (1) Jesse Harl, who atlends uo lo 36 shows veaflv as Hailline pres., spendinb 165 nighls arinualfy away from home, '(2) John O'Donnell, Larry Freimann, Susan Mubller, Bed Fisher, Joel Donovan. (3) Mary Murphy, "Bucld' Wheal. (4) Kyle, Robin, Gladys & RcFs Kincaid, Bic* Bames. (5) Jan & Tom'Strickland. (6) Frank Halvorcen, Mike Ahig, Bidr Fahrner. (7) Ed Fatz, lan Giesler,
Joe Maliszewski. (8) Matla & Did< Kelly, Fnnk Vandermeer, Bdan Dickie, Jim Turner, Craig Larson. (9) John Jayne, Randy Whitman. (10) Bud & Kerry Wlhile. (11) Nttasha Edscorn, Henry Taklo. (12) Don Peet, Dick Scott, Dan Wliams. (13) Mede Dole, Chuck Lawler. (14) Tom & Stephanie Plakos, Did< Anderson. (15) Craig Dowdy, Mike McCollum. (16) Duane Swan, Lisa Hamillon, (17) Erv Dellinger, Mitch