By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – State agencies are doing an environmental assessment of the use of oil field salt water to clear the state's highways of ice and snow.
The state Department of Transportation had been using that salt water on highways in the Williston, Dickinson, Minot and Devils Lake districts -- but stopped because of environmental concerns.
DOT director Francis Ziegler says normally, a salt water brine is used to help clean the roads -- and the oil field water had some other materials in it that helped break up the ice much faster.
"The pressure is to get the ice off the roads as quickly as possible," said Ziegler. "You start yielding to public pressure as you start using your tools, and pretty soon, you start using a tool that people may not want out there."
DOT, the Department of Mineral Resources and the state Health Department will be working on the assessment. The agencies say it will likely be summer before that assessment is completed.