The City of Austin amended its Code
to ban the use and sale of pavement sealants containing coal tar
within the City’s planning jurisdiction (full purpose city
limits and ETJ). The one exception is that the sealant may be sold
if the intended application area is outside the City’s ETJ.
PAHs are a high-profile pollutant of growing
concern nationwide, due to increasing concentrations in waterways
City research has found that coal
tar-based sealants are a major source of PAHs; a ban provides
an unprecedented opportunity to eliminate
a significant pollutant threat to our local water resources
The combination of chemical tracing, laboratory
toxicity, and field-verified degradation provides ample evidence
to support regulatory action to remove the use of coal tar sealants
within the City’s jurisdiction
