In Ohio a Cleveland Plain Dealer report on state legislation surrounding a 2017 public health report details radiation hazards from a salt-brine road de-icer mix used there. And the risk is more than a little alarming.

Salt-brine is defined by the American Public Works Association as a solution of salt (typically sodium chloride, calcium chloride or magnesium chloride) and water.

It seems AquaSalina, the commercial brine mixture spread all over Ohio, has: […] elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said. [find Ohio Department of Natural Resources pdf here]

Ohio’s Duck Creek Energy, Inc., maker of the trademarked product, says the de-cier brine and dust control agent  “AquaSalina^® is a natural saltwater solution produced from ancient seas dating back to the Silurian age almost 425 million years ago.”

That is likely true — as far as it goes — but the “ancient sea water” is also toxic oil-field brine dredged up from conventional (not shale fracking) oil and gas wells. At the wells the waste water is stored in tanks and residual oil and gas is removed after it floats to the surface. The toxic waste water — err, I mean “ancient sea water” — is trucked to Duck Creek facilities where volatile organics and trace minerals — but not naturally occurring radium — are filtered out. What remains is rebranded (apparently with a straight face) as AquaSalina “natural saltwater” road brine and dust control agent.

Problem is: “Heavy metals and radiologicals accumulate in the soil and become problematic for drinking water,” said Trish Demeter, the Ohio Environmental Council vice president of Policy, Energy. “They don’t just go away. The more you use deicers [and dust control agents] the more these toxins build up over a long period of time.” Not sure if Ohioans should feel complacent, even though the report does say they believe radiation exposure from wintertime use of AquaSalina was “unlikely” to exceed human dosage limits. In the previous winter Ohio road crews used one million gallons of AquaSalina, a fraction of the 10 million total gallons of de-icer mixes used. But then again, it is the only proven radioactive mix splashed on the roads.

 The State of Vermont started experimenting with salt-brine highway deicers (the non-radioactive variety as far as we know) about ten years ago. The VTrans FAQ webpage says that the state currently uses them to “jump start” the melting process and to minimize the amount of salt that bounces into the ditches. The salt we typically use is sodium chloride, the same as on your dinner table at home. Then again, VTrans has not yet (that we know of) released the exact chemical make-up of its brine formula.

Road salt, brine de-icing brews, and mixtures are widely seen as culprits that not only pollute streams but prematurely rust car bodies, corrode brake lines, and erode concrete highway structures. In 2017 a Vermont bill that would have banned the use of sodium chloride, calcium chloride and or magnesium chloride brine mixes was introduced but not passed.

Alternatives to salt-based brines are being tested. Carbohydrate sugars in juices left over from commercial industrial processing beets, cheese, potatoes and pickle brine are effective at lower temperatures. Beet wastewater reportedly smells like stale coffee and may change oxygen levels in waterways. Dumping tons and tons of anything on the highways is bound to be problematic for water runoff and throw habitats out of whack.

While it may be difficult to find out exactly what homemade blend or commercial salt-brine product VTrans may be using, an increase in rusty trucks and cars, eroding bridges, and polluted streams seem to suggest there’s evidence of increased harm to balance a supposed increase in vehicular safety on otherwise slick roads. The assumption appears to be that spraying salt-brine  can’t be as bad as sluicing ancient radioactive sea water all over the roadways … or can it ?