[Subjectivist]

ROCKMAN, thought you might get a kick out of this.

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/art ... /205210307

Using oilfield brine to fight icy roads can cut costs for cities and townships, but it raises environmental concerns for some.

Saltier than ocean water and used to treat roads in the winter, brine saves cities and townships money on salt and labor. Some government entities get brine for free.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources defines brine as any water pumped from a producing oil and gas well.

Joyce Miller, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation's District 3 that covers Crawford and Richland counties, said brine is used to pretreat all the district's routes.

"Brine is used as a pretreatment before a snow event, while salt is used after the snow to treat and clean the roads," Miller said......
In Ohio, 202 cities, villages and townships in 34 counties have approved or continued use of brine on their roads. Eighteen county governments have signed on.

Those that elect to use brine can shave thousands of dollars off their annual road salt expenses. Brine, by virtue of its lower freezing point, also may be better than rock salt at preventing ice from forming on roads.

Oil and gas producers also benefit because they can save on the costs -- typically $3 to $4 per barrel (42 gallons) -- of injecting the brackish water underground, the only other approved end point for oilfield brine.

Almost 200 million gallons of brine were produced by Ohio wells in 2010, the last year of complete reporting available, according to the state's well database.

In 2010, 90 percent of brine and fracking fluid in the state was injected underground, a CentralOhio.com review found. The remaining 10 percent includes the amount reused in the drilling process and relatively tiny amounts stored or recycled at a water treatment plant. About 2 percent -- brine only, by law -- was spread on Ohio roads.

By my math 2% of 200,000,000 gallons is 4,000,000 gallons of produced brine used on roadways. Don't you wish you could do that with your produced brine and save all that disposal charge?

[vtsnowedin]

From the above post.

Those that elect to use brine can shave thousands of dollars off their annual road salt expenses. Brine, by virtue of its lower freezing point, also may be better than rock salt at preventing ice from forming on roads.

What a total crock of @#!%. Sure you can shave money off the budget line for road salt but you will increase the budget line for equipment and the line for fuel to haul all that water weight plus the labor and benefits line for your help plus the overtime line getting the crew out there "Before the storm"
Only a bureaucrat that looks at each budget line as an individual entity would think he or she had saved any money.

[ROCKMAN]

Sub - Yes...amazing. And how does the state of Texas (where the gov't is "in the pocket" of the oil industry) view dumping brine on the ground:

Sec. 29.044. DISPOSING OF OIL AND GAS WASTE. (a) No hauler may dispose of oil and gas waste on public roads or on the surface of public land or private property in this state in other than a railroad commission-approved disposal facility without written authority from the railroad commission.

Sec. 29.046. PENALTY. A person who violates any provision of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction is punishable by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 or by confinement in the county jail for not more than 10 days or by both.

Sec. 29.047. ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTY. (a) If a person violates the provisions of this chapter or a rule, order, license, permit, or certificate issued under this chapter, the person may be assessed a civil penalty by the railroad commission.

(b) The penalty may not exceed $10,000 a day for each violation. Each day a violation continues may be considered a separate violation for purposes of penalty assessments.

(c) In determining the amount of the penalty, the railroad commission shall consider the permittee's history of previous violations of this chapter, the seriousness of the violation and any hazard to the health or safety of the public.

And how much would I have to pay to legally dispose of 4 million gallons of brine: $500,000 . The state should least make the operators haul and spray the brine or hard them a fee to cover the cost. And if you think Texas is tough consider La. where I'm not allowed to pump rain water off my location when drilling in a wet lands area. Seems like lots of folks want to be good environmental stewards when someone else pays the cost. Similar to NIMBY... NIMBA: Not In My Bank Account. Keep salt contamination out of the environment or keep the voters from skidding on ice: which gets you elected?

[Subjectivist]

We have six inches of fresh blowing snow and the roads yesterday and today are awful. Toledo ohio just declared a level 2 snow emergency on the radio station playing my country hits, that means if you don't have to travel you are suppossed to stay home and police are only responding to injury accidents or life threatening emergencies.

So yes, one way to get more votes would be to dump a lot of brine on the roads today. but the fact is the road crews just can't be everywhere at once and th high winds with powder snow over the open farm fields mean the ditches are drifting over. If you lose track of where the road is today you slide into a six foot deep drinage ditch, and good luck getting a tow truck.