Drying green slash pine with any of three high temperature drying schedules produced a product in which both the sapwood and the heartwood could be penetrated with CCA using a modified Bethell treatment schedule. Required H3 retentions were achieved in both sapwood and heartwood, from 200 litres per m³ charge uptake. Post-treatment fixation/drying was accomplished by three different regimes, including an accelerated fixation. Although acceptable preservative penetration and retention was achieved in the heartwood, arsenic fixation (as determined by both AWPA procedure E11-87 and U.S. EPA TCLP procedure) was inferior to that attained in the sapwood. TCLP leachates from 1 cm³ heartwood blocks contained up to 4.5 mg/l arsenic, very close to the maximum value (5.0 mg/l) currently permitted in Australia for arsenic waste disposal. Though there are clear advantages in achieving heartwood penetration, caution must be exercised to ensure that this step does not compromise the accepability of the product. No process modification could be accepted if it introduced possibilities of exceeding safe disposal limits for sawdust and offcuts, or building site contamination.

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