Magnesium Chloride & Your Environment

[WestCoDude]

Come on Colorado--be a man about it and use salt.

[Idunn]

This page is primarily concerned with the effects of heavy industrial traffic on the cultural resource of Nine Mile Canyon. The quotation concerning Magnesium Chloride can be found about half way down the page:
News - Nine Mile Canyon Coalition

"We have before and after photos of Magnesium-Chloride (dust bonding agent) applications and deterioration of the road’s surface where it has been applied and the fugitive dust associated with the deterioration. Dust collection slides (8” x 8”) have been placed at varying distances along the road to substantiate fugitive dust drift and its accumulation on the rock art (rock writing and markings) as well as the environment. Monitoring of vehicle speeds are being done periodically. Storm water runoff in the area of mag-chloride application has been sampled as well."

Note that despite the application of Magnesium Chloride that there appears to be a lot of dust generated.

[ryanek9freak]

Originally Posted by Charles

If I had an extra $15K or $20K laying around, I'd install these on my F-150 and Sequoia. The school buses have them...you can see the chains dangling inside the rear tires.

Insta-Chain, the Automatic Ice Chain | Instachain Insta Chain

Dude!! That's awsome!! I have to have them! Looks like they're powered by air brake cylinders.

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

Why are you so viciously defending this Bob? Do you sell MAg Chloride or something? lol.

I just wish they could find something for snow control that wasnt dangerous and corrosive.

I just despise activists throwing out a barrage of innuendo as if it were a proven fact.

Moderator cut: Please feel free to DM a moderator with specific questions. Do not post them.

And MgCl is not "dangerous." Vehicles sliding out of control on an untreated ice-covered road are dangerous, however.

[Idunn]

It should be noted that Magnesium Chloride is administered as a drug on occasion, in small doses (italics mine). But that in higher concentrations it is very hazardous. As with many things. So the question not so much the compound but its application and quantities involved.

Also note that for effective dust suppression Magnesium Chloride, or other similar salts, must be repeatedly applied. Also that the application in winter for road de-icing is measured in millions of gallons.

The quote below is from the State of Colorado, 'Health Effects of Deicing Applications In Colorado':
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/ap/down/mgclstudy.pdf

"A positive association with increased hospital admissions for respiratory-related illnesses has been reported. Decreased lung function and increased respiratory symptoms are associated with increased PM concentrations in community studies (CIIT, 1997). "

Please note this is a subjective source which tends to downplay any adverse health effects. Yet even here mention is made of various concerns.

It is this authors contention that Magnesium Chloride is being used for winter road de-icing and summer gravel road dust suppression far in excess of what the environment (including us) can tolerate.

[Bob from down south]

Here's the bullet quote from the first paragraph of the transmittal letter from the quoted document:

The study examines the potential health risks of magnesium chloride deicers and street sand/salt mixtures. Based on the available data, the results do not suggest a health risk for certain chemicals detected on air monitoring filters for which toxicological analyses were performed.

This really looks like incriminating evidence of risk...NOT!!

[Gabegirl]

Hello folks (sorry for the long message...but there is a point / question here!)
A little input from a Gulf Island, west coast BC Canada. We are currently having our gravel roads sprayed with Mag. Chloride..I know that because I just phoned the sprayer and asked the question. For some time now we residents have been in a battle with the road maintenance people and the Govt over the goop that is currently being used on our dirt roads. We lovingly call it Texada slime. It comes from a quarry on another island and is only used on some of the northern Gulf Islands…presumably they assume we will take it where others would not. (wrong..so wrong) On our website devoted to the subject [url=http://www.texadaslime.org]Texada Slime on Gabriola Roads We have a great deal of reportage on the really serious problems we are having with this stuff that is on our roads including the analysis shown here as to its contents
In an examination of grain size; gravel was found to amount to 29.5%; course sand 19.3%; medium sand 23.3%; fine sand 12.1% and silt 15.9%.

An examination of metals disclosed that Arsenic registered 29.6 mg/kg (about 30 times higher than competing sources) and Copper registered 189 mg/kg (about 20 times greater than competing sources).
Features of Arsenic. (Source; Department of Health and Human Services, USA0
“ . Arsenic occurs naturally in soil and minerals and may enter the air, water and land from wind-blown dust and may get into water from runoff and leaching
. Arsenic cannot be destroyed in the environment. It can only change its form.
. Rain and snow remove arsenic dust particles from the air.
. Many common arsenic compounds can dissolve in water. Most of the arsenic in water will ultimately end up in soil or sediment[ Fish and shellfish can accumulate arsenic; most of this arsenic is in an organic form called arsenobetaine that is much less harmful

Is there anyone out there who might know what might come of Mag. Chloride being sprayed on roads that already have the gravel described above on them? Wouldn’t it be nice if they cancelled each other out. Somehow I seriously doubt that.

[Idunn]

Without knowing my guess this quarry saw a way to turn unwanted refuse into a potential profit center. Without, apparently, much the regard for the environment or those who must suffer the results. Good to see some people are not going to put up with this, and my best wishes on a satisfactory outcome.

I don't know what adding Magnesium Chloride to such a soup would do. But in such circumstances MC is used a dust suppressant until, that is, all dries out then it is in the dust. Can hardly see where adding large quantities of another chemical is likely to help.

What any of this illustrates is that we live within a closed ecosystem; all tends to cycle back to us, sometimes rather quickly and dramatically. Anyone having used medicine surely aware the importance doctor's place on dosage, a little might help but too much and you may never need medicine again. Same thing applies to our environment, in which we integral. I ran across some figures, which I cannot put my hand to at the moment, that said that oils from passing autos draining from roadways on this continent totaled far more than that spilled from the Exxon Valdiz tanker. Hard to believe, but it seemed a credible source.

Anyway, while it may be easy to overlook that transpiring in the broader world (or not, ie: air pollution from China drifting across the Pacific) and take umbrage with resultant measures that impose an economic cost, when it comes to our own individual yards we all seem rather particular.

[Idunn]

I recently talked with a professional forester from Colorado State University, she on a consulting basis. In my asking, she said they hoped the pine beetle infestation so prevalent to the west wouldn't be as severe along the Front Range due the greater diversity of trees. This in reference to a location near Estes Park, CO.

Although she continued that in severe infestations that something like a Pine Beetle would even attack other species of trees, even though doing so would not allow them to complete a full cycle in reproduction.

There are of course other types of beetles and diseases which other species of tree are susceptible. So in effect all is at risk, and the weakest most at risk. Thus climate change is a large factor, and the Park Service has flatly stated that the extent of the present Pine Beetle infestation (although in balance natural) is directly related to trees weakened by drought. As a trend this means all the forests of the West will be changing, and not necessarily for the better (ie: forest fires, diseases, etc.)

I also asked her specifically about the effects of Magnesium Chloride on trees adjacent to roads. She said that while in a balanced environment certain trees might always die for one reason or another, that the prevalence of dead and dying trees along Colorado's roads is directly related to the use of Magnesium Chloride. That it is, and will, kill the trees there. This is determinate on exposure, and to a large degree runoff and what they intake, but even the spray from a passing snowplow will be detrimental.

Although my concern largely with specific trees, she tended to be more philosophical saying that of course there would be large changes with, in some cases, other species replacing those dying off. And in thirty and forty years some of this new growth would begin to mature.

Then also, and she didn't say this, in about 3.5 billion years they say the sun will cause the earth's oceans to boil.

[Idunn]

Just for the record, and for anyone who might be interested, I have been personally told by a National Park Ranger, also a Forest Service Ranger, that Magnesium Chloride is responsible for the death of trees directly adjacent to Colorado roads. That and that alone (even as some few will die from natural causes, etc.) This also relayed to me by an independent professional forester.

Not just a few of them either but a lot, many of them otherwise perfectly healthy and mature ponderosa pine and other species that have done perfectly fine until now. The fairly recent use of this particular chemical (and only escalating in usage) is starting to catch up and chances are no tree will be able to withstand this.

So make no mistake about it, even though the State may claim otherwise and the companies that manufacture this stuff claim to be 'green' and environmentally friendly, together they are willfully poisoning the roadsides and streams of Colorado.