Dust study finished: Now what?

Study shows North Fork Road dust harmful, but paving debate continues

Road dust has been a Flathead County scourge for years, and residents have complained that the clouds of particulate matter were affecting their health.

The problem of road dust isn't going away any time soon, but a University of Montana study of the North Fork Road has helped quantify the health risks. Whether that translates into immediate solutions from the county is still uncertain.

"I hope we can put it to good use," Commissioner Dale Lauman said of the UM study. Lauman is on the county's road advisory committee.

None of the commissioners were surprised that the study showed breathing large quantities of dust was harmful, but how to solve the problem still remains a mystery.

"The unfortunate realization for me personally was that it's the same old story," Commissioner Gary Hall said. "We realize that we have a dust issue. We'd love nothing more than to mitigate for dust, but because of the lack of resources, we're just trying to maintain our infrastructure."

Flathead County is testing various dust control products this summer. The difficulty is finding a product that is both effective and environmentally safe but still affordable. The Road Department allocates just a fraction of its budget for dust abatement, and the county probably will lose $900,000 in federal funding for next year's road budget.

For now, paving more county roads isn't a financially feasible option.

Commissioner Joe Brenneman said that the county's new "dust deputy" is one way of addressing the dust issue.

"People make fun of it, but even getting people to slow down 10 mph, statistically we have done more to reduce dust short of paving or oiling the roads," Brenneman said.

The dust deputy is responsible for patrolling unpaved roads throughout the county and ticketing speeding drivers.

The dust study, which professors Tony Ward and Andrij Holian presented to the county on Monday, showed that summertime dust levels along the North Fork Road are often twice as high as standard acceptable levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Holian took the information from the study and used the data to conduct a health experiment using road dust and mice. He found that mice exposed to very high levels of road dust developed significant lung damage resembling emphysema.

The effect of road dust on lung tissue is similar to that of cigarette smoke.

The North Fork Road Coalition for Health and Safety commissioned the study, and the group's chairman, Robert Grimaldi, said the county must act now that there is scientific evidence exposing the health risks of road dust.

"The county really has to stand up to this issue," Grimaldi said. "There's got to be dust abatement at an absolute minimum along the entire road."

Grimaldi also said he would like to see the nine miles from Canyon Creek to Glacier Park's Camas Creek entrance paved.

"I think the North Fork Road is vastly different from other dusty roads in the county," he said. "It provides an arterial for Glacier National Park, the Border Patrol people, Forest Service, rafters, logging trucks, tourists."

Efforts to pave the North Fork Road have been thwarted in the past. The most recent try in 1999 ended in failure after environmental and local outcry.

Polebridge resident John Frederick, a longtime paving opponent who attended Monday's meeting and listened to the study's results, said dust is a serious issue, but paving the road is going too far.

"We'd be going from a rural situation, nearly primitive, to something closer to downtown New York," Frederick said.

Frederick, who is president of the North Fork Preservation Association, said even paving the nine-mile stretch to the park's entrance would be too much.

"It would facilitate paving for the rest," he said. "If it's OK to do that, it's OK to do the rest."

Frederick said a paved road would open the door to unfettered development, which then would ruin the character of the North Fork. But with a very limited amount of private land to begin with, coupled with a new neighborhood plan and hundreds of acres set aside in conservation easements, the development argument rings hollow for people like Grimaldi.

"You can't divide land up here to less than 20-acre parcels," Grimaldi said. "There's no electricity. What are you going to develop? People like him aren't realistic and don't realize times have changed."

Environmental arguments for and against paving are legion. On one hand, paving the road would lead to higher traffic speeds and more collisions with wildlife. On the other, sediment from the North Fork Road is entering the North Fork River, and road dust may be a big contributor to aluminum deposits in nearby high-mountain lakes.

Stormwater runoff from asphalt also would enter the river, and paved roads release chemical pollutants long after the paving is complete.

But, Grimaldi asked, if paving roads is so destructive, why does Glacier Park pave so many of its roads?

"If paving is so bad, we have a lot of paved roads to tear up in this country," Grimaldi said. "Glacier National Park has paved roads. Is it the end of the world?"

One thing Grimaldi and Frederick do agree on is that the North Fork Road might not be the county's first priority when it comes to road dust.

The county has about 700 miles of unpaved roads, many with higher traffic counts than the North Fork Road and with much higher density. About 100 people live year-round in the North Fork.

"We are not the only gravel road," Frederick said. "A lot of the other roads, they don't go to nowhere. They have people living on them, and they don't have an environmentally sensitive area. Do it. Pave it."

Brenneman echoed that statement.

"You should pave the roads that everyone knows need to be paved first," he said. "Then go for the controversial ones."

But nothing will be paved until the county finds a significant source of money. Paving all the gravel roads in the county would cost between $70 million and $150 million.

"It's going to be a question that plagues the county for years to come," Hall said.

Reporter Michael Richeson may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at mricheson@dailyinterlake.com