Many air pollution problems are limited to one region or another, but there’s one that
all Alaskan villages know intimately - road dust.
Mid-summer, when it’s hot and dry and windy.
When we head back from fish camp - that’s in June - and it’s in the evenings that
right above Bethel, there’s this big plume of brown haze,
and we see that for weeks at a time when there’s no rain.
The majority of the elders are at home trying to stay away from that.
It’s horrible, especially when there’s no wind or rain. The dust stays in the air
and slowly comes down.
There are a lot of children that are coughing and elders that have asthma and lung problems.
Some people wear goggles, some people cover their mouth or cover their nose and mouth.
It’s kind of bad on our fish, you know, when we catch our fish in early June for subsistence
to dry.
Road dust is more than flying dirt. Sometimes it can have pollutants like asbestos, bits
of mining, animal or human waste, snow and ice control chemicals, and engine oil.
Road dust is made of larger or course particles that can make heart or lung related problems
like asthma much worse when they are inhaled.
The biggest cause of man-made road dust is ATVs and trucks.
ATVs have knobby tires that tear up dirt roads and increase the amount of dust in the air.
Dust we then breathe in, or, if it settles on subsistence food, we eat.
There are a number of effective ways communities can reduce road dust during dry periods.
What a village chooses to do depends on the equipment and people it has on hand and the
kind of budget it has for road maintenance.
One thing we can do to reduce the amount of road dust pollution is to simply go slower
on dry days or not use an ATV at all if you can avoid it.
Tribal ordinances can be passed and signs can be posted warning drivers to slow down.
This can be a very low cost remedy if drivers understand why it’s important.
I think that’s a workable solution.
Another low cost method is road watering. If done frequently during dry season, it can
be very effective.
Costs include maintenance and operation of a water applicator or a truck or ATV with
a trailer.
Gravel can be very effective in reducing dust emissions if spread annually.
This method is moderately expensive and would include the cost of moving and placing the
gravel with heavy equipment.
Villages can also use chemicals to reduce the amount of dust that becomes airborne.
Substances like calcium chloride are designed to bind to road dust and must be applied at
least once a year in most cases.
This option is probably the most expensive and would include the cost of the chemical,
its transport to the community, and the equipment and operator to spread it on the dirt roads.
Some chemicals have corrosive or other impacts on equipment and the environment.
Your village can meet to explore these options, decide which method would be the most effective
and affordable, and develop an overall strategy to reduce road dust.
The tribal council, elders, schools, village corporations and regional non-profits,
transportation departments, environmental staff, Borough managers, health clinics and
businesses all have a stake in reducing road dust.
Work hard together as a community, work with the entities, educate the community members,
educate every household as best you can.