Review Review of environmental effects and treatment of runoff from storage and handling of wood A ˚ sa Hedmark a , Miklas Scholz b, * a Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7008, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden b Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, School of Engineering and Electronics, William Rankine Building, The King’s Buildings, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, Scotland, United Kingdom Received 31 August 2007; received in revised form 8 December 2007; accepted 12 December 2007 Available online 8 February 2008 Abstract This review paper summarises the environmental effects of runoff from wood handling sites including log yards. The characteristics of site runoff and the corresponding effects on the receiving watercourses are presented for worldwide case studies, highlighting the urgent need to address the water pollution problem associated with the wood industry. The methods used to reduce the negative environmental impact of the runoff, such as constructed wetlands, soil infiltration and chemical oxidation, are evaluated. The principal environmental problem of runoff is usually the high concentration of organic substances originating from the wood and bark, some of which are toxic to aquatic life. Phosphorus is also a problem according to some studies. The toxicity of the runoff varies greatly, and depends on the species of tree stored, the amount of water the wood has been in contact with and the degree of runoff treatment. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Constructed wetland; Log yard; Receiving watercourse; Runoff; Wood industry 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Handling of wood in different shapes and forms at small or industrial scale takes place in all regions with climatic conditions allowing trees to grow and people to reside. Wood is an important natural resource and is used all over the world as, for example, an energy source, building mate- rial, raw material for paper, furniture and tools, and for art and decoration purposes. The environmental impact of logging, transport, storage, debarking, sawing, milling, chopping and pulping of wood depends on the scale and location of the operation, tree species, handling methods and preventative measures that have been chosen to reduce the corresponding impacts on the environment and receiv- ing watercourses (Zenaitis et al., 2002). The environmental impacts from sites handling wood include emissions of particles (Kauppinen et al., 2006) and volatile organic compounds from wood (Rice and Erich, 2006; Welling et al., 2001), emissions from the use of energy fuels (Zelikoff et al., 2002), release of storm water that has been in contact with wood or irrigation water used to protect wood (Bailey et al., 1999; Woodhouse and Duff, 2004), and emissions and spillages from machines and vehi- cles used at the site (Orban et al., 2002; WDOE, 1995). Fur- thermore, noise (Kraus, 1985), odour (Nicholson, 1987) and light (Chalkias et al., 2006) emissions from wood han- dling sites are also seen as undesirable. 1.2. Rationale, overview and objectives of the review This review paper focuses on the impacts of storage of wood and the corresponding mechanical wood handling processes on the receiving watercourses and the environ- ment, and assesses the techniques that could be used to reduce adverse impacts. The specific environmental effects 0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2007.12.042 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 131 6506780; fax: +44 131 6506554. E-mail address: m.scholz@ed.ac.uk (M. Scholz). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 5997–6009