Bill would reduce amount of de-icers used on Montana roads

Montana is using too much salt on its highways, according to a Hungry Horse lawmaker who wants to scale back the state’s use of de-icers in the name of road safety and the protection of water quality.

Under Senate Bill 106, proposed by Republican state Sen. Dee Brown, the Montana Department of Transportation would have to reduce the amount of brine and magnesium chloride it uses on public highways by 10 percent each year, until reaching the average level of salt used during the 2007 through 2010 winter seasons.

During a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee, Brown argued that the over-use of chemical de-icers has created a false sense of security on roads, with the chemicals increasingly being applied “like you’re spraying a small field of potatoes.”

“We’re becoming complacent, and our highways look black,” Brown added. “They look like they aren’t dangerous.”

In the Kalispell area, the use of salt brine on highways has grown steadily over the past decade, reaching more than 2.5 million gallons last winter, from an average of less than 2 million from 2007 through 2010. Statewide, total salt-brine application has nearly quadrupled in the last 10 years.

No one else spoke in favor of the bill during the hearing, but Brown shared a letter of support from the Flathead Lakers, a Polson-based conservation organization that advocates for environmental protections in the Flathead Lake watershed.

John Schwartz, the Montana Department of Transportation’s Division of Maintenance Administrator, objected to the bill, arguing that the state’s use of liquid de-icers helps cut down on the quantity of sand, rock salt and other products the department uses to melt ice and increase traction on roadways.

According to the state’s review of the bill’s fiscal impact, lowering the salt-brine and magnesium chloride quantities used each winter would require more potassium acetate, a significantly more expensive type of chemical de-icer. Although Brown noted her disagreement with the state’s fiscal note, it estimated the bill would cost an extra $6.5 million through the next winter, then ramp up to more than $14 million per year by the 2019-20 season.

“MDOT believes that without liquid de-icers, we would not be able to deliver the same service that transportation customers expect,” Schwartz said, also noting his disagreement with Brown’s argument that more judicious use of liquid brine could promote more highway safety in the winter.

In addition to the potential for salty runoff to compromise the water quality of Flathead Lake and other water bodies in Northwest Montana, Brown argued that vehicle safety is compromised by corrosion from heavily salted roads.

“When we’re talking about brakes and discs and mufflers falling off — and there’s no inspections [in Montana] — and wire harnesses falling off semis, is it really cheap?” she asked the committee.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.