ODOT to drop brine waste product used to deice roads
The Ohio Department of Transportation plans to stop purchasing a deicer made from processed brine drawn from oil and gas wells.
The department made the call after the Ohio-made deicer product, Aquasalina, became the subject of House Bill 282. The bill would allow the product to be sold to the general public and remove a requirement that users pay a $50 fee to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and report where every gallon gets spread.
ODOT did not cite the bill or environmental concerns for its decision to stop buying the product.
“We only need additives when pavement temperatures get extremely
cold, which is fortunately the exception, not the rule,” said ODOT spokesman Matt Bruning. “Also, there are a lot more approved products on the market these days, so we have more options to choose from.”
Even prior to the bill’s introduction, environmentalists called for the discontinued use of the product, citing radioactive test results.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which oversee the oil and gas industry in Ohio, tested the product in 2017. It found in one instance that Aquasalina contained 9,602 picocuries per liter of combined amounts of radium-226 and radium-228, far beyond the Ohio legal limit of 0.005 picocuries of radium per liter of oil and gas waste allowed in landfills.
However, state laws allow brine produced from vertical, or conventional (as opposed to fracking) wells to be spread as a deicer without a cap on radiation levels because the state says it is a naturally occurring byproduct.
Aquasalina brine comes from conventional wells.
Radium-226 and radium-228, both found in brine waste from conventional and unconventional wells, are known carcinogens and can lead to bone, liver, and breast cancer in humans if levels are high enough, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“For whatever reason, we are glad to know ODOT is not going to be purchasing this and spreading it,” said Teresa Mills, executive director of the Ohio Buckeye Environmental Network.
In fiscal year 2021, ODOT purchased 308,029 gallons of Aquasalina for $206,993. The state began purchasing the product in the winter of 2013/2014. The state still has 227,208 gallons of the product to use, Bruning said.
The state has done no long-term studies on the safety of Aquasalina.
“The Ohio Department of Health has not studied large volumes of Aquasalina product applied to roadways or the impact of multiple applications over a winter season, or over multiple years of application,” said Alicia Shoults, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health.
Dave Mansbery, the owner of Nature’s Own Aquasalina, has repeatedly said that the product is safe to use and commissioned his own risk assessment.
“We process and recycle and repurpose conventional brine through an extensive process to produce a clean commodity,” he previously told The Dispatch.
Mansbery calls Aquasalina a lifesaving snow-fighting tool that can be used when temperatures dip below 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It would be a tragedy if life is lost on
our highways because of the actions of a few misinformed loudmouthed activists,” Mansbery told The Dispatch. “Sadly, science only seems to apply to the argument when it fits a narrative. Are they going to console family members lost to winter ice when it could be prevented?”
Bruning has said that other additives used by the department, such as Beet Heet, have been just as effective.
State Rep. Bob Young R-canton, who introduced HB 282, did not respond to a request seeking comment. It’s unclear why he wants to change state law for a single de-icing product.
“To the division’s knowledge, Aquasalina/duck Creek Energy is the only current oil and gas waste facility with a chief ’s order that would seek to qualify its product as a commodity,” said Stephanie O’grady, a spokesperson for ODNR. bharvilla@dispatch.com @Beth_harvilla