VTrans tells Senate Transportation bill’s dust‑suppression reporting would be heavy admin for little chloride

Summary

Agency of Transportation Chief Engineer Jeremy Reed told the Senate Transportation Committee that a provision in S.29 to require reporting of summer calcium‑chloride dust suppression would create significant administrative work for “very little chloride,” and urged coordinaton with other committees to refine language.

Chair Reich Westman of the Senate Transportation Committee resumed testimony on S.29 and asked Jeremy Reed, chief engineer for the Agency of Transportation (VTrans), to discuss the bill’s provisions on chloride use.

Reed said VTrans supports the general intent of draft 3.2 of S.29 but opposes a reporting requirement on summer dust suppression that would require the agency to track small, dispersed uses of calcium chloride. “It’s just an administrative headache for so very little chloride,” Reed said, citing rough order‑of‑magnitude comparisons between winter road salt and summer dust suppression. He told the committee VTrans spreads about 30,000 tons of salt for winter ice control and somewhere in the neighborhood of 250–300 tons for dust suppression statewide, and that the way crews apply calcium chloride for dust control makes it less likely to enter surface waters than road salt applied on…

VTrans tells Senate Transportation bill’s dust‑suppression reporting would be heavy admin for little chloride

Summary

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