The Washington County Board of Supervisors has decided to keep the dust control policy as it is. At a recent supervisors meeting County Engineer Jacob Thorius said the use of dust control in the county is a privilege, “The way it’s currently spelled out, it’s the responsibility of the land owner to fill out a permit and pay that fee, and they have to understand our policy, they pay the cost of the dust control. We mark the limits of the control area with flags and they maintain those flags, fill in potholes or other minor depressions or deterioration of the surface after the dust control is applied. Our responsibility is to maintain the road system for the traveling public. We prepare the dust control application areas in May and July. We create a database and maps of dust control application areas for our operators to try and know where they’re at. Just for reference, the flags are supposed to identify where they’re at. If there aren’t flags and we blade through it, sorry. Because we know where most of them are at, but it’s not our responsibility to keep the flags up.”

Permits may be granted through the engineer’s office and contractors need to be registered. Materials that are approved for dust control include tree sap (lignin sulfonate), calcium chloride, soy oil, refined glycerine, magnesium chloride, and chip seal. There is a $50 fee for the property owner to have dust control, and with the late fee it goes up to $100 starting May 1st. In 2018, the county had 202 applications for dust control.