A group of auto repair shop owners and workers presented at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Meeting on August 1st, decrying the Department of Transportation’s use of a calcium chloride “salt” brine to manage ice on peninsula roads during winter. In addition to the local presence, a legislative liaison, Andy Mills, spoke on behalf of the DOT.
According to Mike Arnold – the first to speak on behalf of the auto repair group – a petition calling for a discontinuance of the brine’s usage on the peninsula has accrued more than 2,500 signatures. Arnold explained how he submitted this petition to the local DOT office. “I called the DOT Superintendent and asked if he had received [the petition]. He had,” Arnold told the assembly. “He said that things weren’t going to change, that we weren’t going to do anything about it but continue using the brine. I explained to him that this was telling us about how the safety issues were going to affect people in the future. So, he said the only thing that he recommended was that we take our cars to the car wash, and do the $25 Mud Buster.
Other automotive professionals spoke, some bringing visual aids demonstrating the effects of the brine. Among these, Robert Collins, and Anthony Pisa made comments on their personal experience with automotive repair, and changes they have seen since the borough began use of the calcium chloride compound.
“I’ve been in the automotive industry for 22 years, and have seen my share of rust in the past,” Collins said. “But [after] moving to the peninsula, the last four years, working as manager of a local shop, I’ve seen more brake line failures, electrical failures, wire harness failures, frame failures than I’ve seen in 19 years.”
One of the specific issues raised was the brine’s effect on brakes, specifically how it leads to brake calipers sticking, and causing break pads to drag.
“I’ve had several in my shop where they’ll get to be stuck while you’re driving, and that’s just applying one particular break out of the four. And I’ve actually had two of them that came to the shop on fire – like you see on NASCAR sometimes, coming out with the wheels on fire,” said Pisa, owner/operator of Anthony’s Auto Transmission and Repair. “You do a simple brake job? That’s a thing of the past right now.”
Once testimonies by the local petitioners were complete, the assembly turned the floor over to Mills, who serves as the special assistant to the DOT&PF Commissioner. Mills spoke on the disparate environmental impacts of the calcium chloride compound compared to rock salt, explaining how once substances like rock salt and ice melt dry, wind can carry them beyond the roads into forests and rivers. According to Mills, the DOT brine contains a lower concentration (23.3%) of the environmentally harmful sodium chloride.
Mills made sure to clarify that this was not the first time the DOT office had addressed the brine topic with Kenai Peninsula leadership. “I just want to make everyone in the chambers aware that every legislator from that area, Senator Bjorkman, Representative Ruffridge, Representative Carpenter, Mayor Micciche, they have all been very engaged on this issue,” Mills said via phone call. “I’ve heard from them numerous times, and fortunately had the opportunity just on Friday, Commissioner Anderson and I were down there talking with all of those folks in that area – the senators, representatives, and the mayor – and this issue was certainly forefront on those conversations.”
The petition did get some immediate traction when Mills committed to a DOT review of the brine usage.
“One thing I want to point out is that most of the testimony tonight stemmed from a group of people that are making money from the DOT corroding people’s cars,” said Assembly member Richard Derkevorkian. “It’s their customer’s vehicles that they’re concerned about. They’re concerned about the public safety enough that they’re spending their own money on a campaign that, if successful, is going to cost them business in the long run, I think the DOT needs to take a hard look at that while you’re concerned with public safety.
Jim Harpring, who drafted the brine discontinuance presentation, spoke briefly, and summed up the goal of the auto professionals and petition signers. “The ultimate goal is a resolution from the assembly in support of this,” Harpring said.
Since the assembly does not record minutes, there is no written record of the brine discussion, but it can be viewed by visiting the video recording of the meeting posted online. Public comments on the brine begin at minute 55:00.