What Is in the Brine Used by Road Crews?

What is that truck spraying on the road? Have you ever been driving down the road behind a truck spraying something and wondered about that? It's just brine, right? Well, it is brine, but it's not your grandmother's pickle-making brine.

Recent controversy over the dangers of fracking brine from natural gas drilling have raised questions about other types of commonly used brines. Oil field completions fluids, or brines, have been in use in the state of Ohio and several other states as road de-icer in winter and to keep dust down in summer since the mid 1980's. Oilfield drilling brine is used in completion operations and when the drill is penetrating the pay zone.

What Is Brine?

The innocuous term brine brings to mind the process for making crispy home-made pickles or a frothy salt-water ocean. Following that reasoning, the term roadway brine implies a relatively harmless salt-water bath, with the salt preventing roadway ice. While the oilfield drilling brine is sometimes salt-based, research shows it is not always the case. Two main classes of corrosive completion fluid, or brine exist; chloride brines and bromides/formates.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources document describing brine use on roadways, for one example, does not distinguish between the two classes of oilfield brine. Oilfield drilling brine is not considered as toxic as hydro-fracture gas drilling brine, but it is corrosive. While the ODNR document originally only mentions oilfield fluid use on roads, a recent ODNR document reveals natural gas brine is also used on roads now.

Contents of Completion Fluid Brine

While there are rules in place for Ohio's road crews to follow to prevent completion fluids from reaching the water supply, heavy precipitation carries the chemicals into drainage ditches that flow into larger water supplies. According to the Sclumberger company's website, an oilfield service provider specializing in well site operation as well as research and engineering facilities, the list of chemical used in oilfield completion brines (these are the less corrosive ones by the way) include:

• Calcium bromide, which can cause skin irritation, eye irritation, respiratory system irritation, blistering, erythema, exfoliation, ulceration, necrosis, scarring, and mucous membrane irritation.
• Calcium carbonate is the base material used in calcium antacids, such as Tums and Caltrate. No side effects are normally associated with calcium carbonate, but in unchecked dosages it can lead to rashes, hives, itching, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest, plus swelling of the mouth, face, lips, and tongue.
• Calcium chloride can be irritating to veins, can cause severe necrosis and sloughing, contains potentially toxic levels of aluminum, poses a danger of cardiac syncope, can cause fetal harm, diminished reproductive capacity, a tingling sensation, and can cause heat flashes.
• Carboxymethyl is generally considered "not harmful" but washing eyes immediately with water is recommended in the event of contact. (This is hard to do if the water is the source of the contamination.)
• Hydroethycellulose is a caustic soda, capable of causing eye and skin burns, respiratory tract burns, and mucous membrane burns. In its pure form, it becomes combustible and slippery when mixed with water. .
• Cesium acetate is a formate brine that can affect the central nervous system if ingested. It can also cause asthma, respiratory disorders, skin disorders, and is skin irritation.
• Guar gum is a laxative when consumed by humans, a thickening agent when used in food,  and a binding agent when used in pills and cosmetic creams. 
• Hydroxypropyl starch is a colorless, odorless thickener derived from natural starch and is used as a stabilizer in brine.
• Zinc is an essential mineral, commonly found in foods and nutritional supplements. While essential to good health, in excessive or uncontrolled doses, it cam cause physical distress and illness including: nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and headaches.
• Bromide can also be called methyl bromide or alkyl bromide and is derived from bromide salts. Methyl bromide is toxic and is also used as a pesticide. The problems with it's use, according to the US EPA is, it depletes the stratospheric ozone layer and it targets not only the pest it is used for, but also any living thing coming into contact with the bromide. Methyl bromide exposure can cause central nervous system failure, respiratory system failure, as well as specific and severe deleterious actions on the lungs, eyes, and skin.
• Iodine salts are commonly used as a nutritional supplement for cattle, but careful dosage requirements are provided on the package along with warnings to keep the product away from children. While iodine is essential to good health, excess iodine can cause inhibited thyroid hormone synthesis, increased TSH stimulation, goiter, thyroiditis, thyroid papillary cancer, burning of the mouth, burning of the throat, a burning sensation in the stomach, fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weak pulse, and coma.

Some of these chemicals are corrosive while others are used in everyday medicines, such as antacids. While many of these are commonly found in over-the-counter medicines and nutritional supplements, uncontrolled doses of these chemicals lead to numerous disorders that range from mild, flu-like symptoms to severe medical conditions such as cancer.