Commissioners want brine salt off the table

SANDPOINT — Bonner County is asking the state to leave salt off the menu of winter highway maintenance options until use of the material is vetted more thoroughly.

There appears to be no dispute that the Idaho Transportation Department’s use of salt brine is an effective and less costly way of keeping highways clear of snow and ice.

But concerns are accumulating over the side effects of the state’s salt-heavy diet in Bonner County.

County commissioners adopted a resolution Tuesday calling on legislators and the governor to suspend the use of salt brine until a series of studies are done to determine whether the risks of using the material outweigh the benefits.

Commissioner Glen Bailey said the corrosive material is eating away at vehicles’ drive systems, electronics and brakes. The saline-based material is also luring deer and moose to the highway, which is increasing the number of collisions with wildlife, Bailey said.

“It’s an attractive nuisance in that the wildlife are coming out and eating off the roadways,” said Bailey. “They get their head down on the middle stripe of the roads and their eyes are not reflecting on the headlights. People aren’t seeing them in time.”

The damage being done to county vehicles was underscored during workshops for the next fiscal year’s budget, according to Commissioner Mike Nielsen, who said repairs to salt-damaged sheriff and public works vehicles will cost as much as $80,000.

“This is having a serious financial impact on Bonner County,” said Nielsen.

The corrosion is also costly to residents.

“It’s the citizens that are also being seriously impacted and those are untold dollars. Three or four hundred dollars for a brake job times a hundred people — those numbers add up rapidly,” Nielsen said.

The Panhandle’s delegation in Boise — Sen. Shawn Keough and Reps. George Eskridge and Eric Anderson — has already raised concerns about the impacts salt brine are having on people’s vehicles and public safety. Those concerns prompted ITD to join a nationwide cost-benefit analysis of the use of salt brine and undertake its own analysis of the brine program.

“They agreed to listen to concerns and they agreed to do these studies,” said Keough.

Keough, who also serves as executive director of Associated Logging Contractors, said loggers are reporting that their trailer hitches are dropping off and brake jobs have to be done more frequently. Salt brine corrosion is also suspected of damaging logging trailers in places that were previously of no concern, she said.

“We have a couple of instances where we think that the salt may have contributed to equipment failures that resulted in loads of logs rolling over because the trailer was so corroded,” Keough said.

The state stopped sanding highways in District 1 in 2005, according to ITD. The department embraced salt brine because it was cheaper and easier to apply than sand. Salt brine was also more effective in baring highway surfaces.

Moreover, the use of salt brine resolved concerns that particulate matter from sand was jeopardizing air and water quality.

But officials are wondering whether those gains are being overshadowed by costly vehicle repairs and crashes with wildlife.

“The cost of the sand versus of the cost of the repairs from saline may be miniscule. Sand may not begin to approach that cost,” said Nielsen.

An ITD spokesman for District 1 was out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment.

However, Keough believes ITD is open to a site-specific approach to using salt brine, such as using it in urban areas and reverting to the use of sand in rural areas or on highways dominated by snow floors.

“They seemed somewhat open to a mixed-management approach rather a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Keough.