Monday was a good day for Tony Frantz, better known on South Whidbey as “Mr. Creosote.”

He stood atop the turnout on Highway 525 just beyond Greenbank Farm overlooking Lake Hancock and watched helicopters lifting creosote-soaked logs off the beach.

“This, to me, is the neatest thing. I want to be down there picking up and loading,” he said.

For years, Frantz has been instrumental in removing contaminated logs from the beaches of Whidbey Island.

This time, it was someone else’s turn.

With the help of the Navy, the Washington Department of Natural Resources removed the chemical-laden logs and debris from Lake Hancock.

Lake Hancock is a 400-acre saltwater estuary owned by the Navy. The lake was a World War II bombing practice site and is now off limits to the public. Now, it’s home to juvenile salmon and other wildlife.

The DNR team identified and tagged more than 700 pieces of material for removal. The logs were then lifted by helicopter to a collection area, and soon they will be carted away by Island Disposal.

As of Monday afternoon, the helicopter had pulled together about 120 tons of logs and debris.

“We expect somewhere around 150 tons by the time we are finished,” said David Roberts, assistant region manager for aquatic lands for the Department of Natural Resources.

The department picks potential clean-up sites based on need. The agency has worked its way south from the Ft. Casey area.

“We do a survey of all beaches. As we survey the beaches, we pick the ones with the highest concentration,” he said.

Creosote is a complex mixture of many chemicals and has been found to be potentially toxic to fish, other marine organisms and humans. More than 300 chemicals have been identified in coal-tar creosote, and there may be 10,000 other chemicals present in the mixture.

The logs were treated with creosote to preserve the wood and were used for construction decades ago. As time passes by, however, wear-and-tear on the structures built with the logs have caused some to be swept off and carried away by the ocean.

Although creosote is no longer used as a wood preservative, thousands of treated logs, telephone poles, pilings and docks wash up on beaches all over Puget Sound.

“Obviously, some of this stuff is pretty old, 30 to 50 years,” Roberts said.

The beaches of Whidbey Island seem to be a magnet for the logs. Roberts said that’s due to the shape of the island and the way the wind and the current push debris onto the beaches.

Once stranded on the beach, the logs can do major damage to the environment. Besides making a deadly habitat for insects and wildlife, chemicals leak out of the logs.

“On Friday when it was so hot, the stuff was oozing out of the logs,” Roberts said. “You could see an oil sheen in the water around them.”

Roberts said the clean-up effort on Lake Hancock will cost between $30,000 to $50,000.

However, Monday’s clean-up is part of a larger initiative.

The Department of Natural Resources is the manager of 2.4 million acres of state-owned lands, and the clean-up is funded through a number of grants, including $2 million from the governor’s office.

Despite the thick fog on Monday, pilot Tony Reese of HighLine Helicopters maneuvered his helicopter with precision over the crew as he dropped the logs at the collection site.

For the veteran pilot, who has more than four decades of flight experience, it was just another day at work as he hauled countless logs off the beach.

“I handle a lot of external loads like that — probably 500 to 700 a week,” Reese said. “It’s going pretty well.”

Before the logs could be lifted, the site had to be inspected first, given its history as a bombing practice area.

Naval Air Station Whidbey Island sent Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 to Lake Hancock to survey the area and check for explosives around the creosote logs and pilings.

Nothing was found, said Chief Petty Officer Timothy Kelley.

“We found lots of metal, no ordnance. That’s a good thing,” Kelley said with a laugh.

Frantz, who was watching the work from afar, said the effort to remove creosote-soaked logs from Whidbey may never be completely finished.

“New logs will be swept on shore,” he said.

For 30 years Frantz has been snorkel diving and observing Lake Hancock. Since the opening of the channel, countless creosote pilings, timbers, railroad ties and arsenic pressure-treated pieces of wood have moved into the lake and estuary and become trapped there.

Frantz said the area — once filled with natural beach odors — is now permeated with the smell of creosote.

“It stinks so bad,” he said.

“At least Lake Hancock is off limits to the public. Other beaches aren’t,” he said.

“I went down to Double Bluff and saw a 3-year-old sitting on a creosote log, playing, building forts with the wood,” he added.

He said the health risk are major, and they could potentially cause cancer in humans.

Even more devastating is the impact on the environment. Creosote can kill 95 percent of fish eggs laid next to a treated log; the remaining five will have mutations, Frantz said. Birds are also at risk.

“I found baby ducks with deformed feet down there,” he recalled.

Still he was glad to see more work being done to rid Whidbey Island beaches of the poisonous driftwood.

“It’s everywhere. This is a major thing in Puget Sound,” he said.

Michaela Marx Wheatley can be reached at 221-5300 or mmarxwheatley@southwhidbeyrecord.com.