Ohio bill would end radioactive brine spreading on roads

By Farah Siddiqi

A newly introduced bill in the Ohio House would ban the use of brine from oil and gas waste on public roadways. House Bill 439, sponsored by Rep. Tristan Rader, D-Lakewood, and Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, targets a decades-old law that allows townships and counties to approve spreading the material as a de-icer and dust suppressant.

Anton Krieger, with the Buckeye Environmental Network, said the waste contains radium and other hazardous substances that can harm health when spread this way.

"Oil and gas waste is a salty water with radium 226, radium 228, heavy metals such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene," he explained. "People are exposed to it by inhalation and ingestion, so getting that radium into the soft tissues inside your body is really harmful."

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has found brine samples often exceed the state’s legal limit for radioactivity. While ODOT and the Turnpike Commission no longer use the material, some local governments, including Farmington Township in Warren County, continue road spreading. Rader said he witnessed the effects firsthand in Washington County.

Supporters say House Bill 439 would update decades-old law and close that loophohole.

Roxanne Groff, an advocate with Athens County, has pushed for reform for years, and said lawmakers need to hear directly from constituents.

"Once a bill is introduced, nothing influences lawmakers more than hearing from their constituents," she said. "The more a legislator hears, the more likely they are to hold public hearings, and that is the step that we have been looking for for the last three years."

If hearings are scheduled, residents will be able to testify in person or submit written comments. House Bill 439 remains in the House Natural Resources Committee, where lawmakers will decide whether to advance the measure to the full chamber.