MARTIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Local officials, farmers, car repair shop owners and others are trying to find the best “solution” for keeping down the dust on area dirt roads.

Local officials and farmers have been at odds the past few months over a brine solution the township, located in Allegan County on the southwestern side of the state, has been using on dirt roads to manage the dust. Todd Zeinstra, a farmer in nearby Shelbyville, told a local newspaper in May the brine solution was damaging his farm equipment. He runs Zeinstra Farms with his brother, Craig.

He told the paper on May 11 the brine solution corrodes his equipment so much he’s had to put three sets of fenders on some of his tractors. Power-washing the equipment doesn’t get it out of the crevices and the solution “starts eating away at everything. I have no problem with them putting down something to control it, but they’ve got to stop using this kind of stuff.”

About 20 area farmers showed up at a May 9 Martin Township board meeting to complain; after that, a committee was formed to study the problem. Since then, local officials have been looking at other liquid solutions for road dust control.

“It’s an ongoing issue,” said Martin Township Supervisor Glenn Leep last week. “We’ve tried a couple new things since the issue came up. We’re in the process of evaluating those.”

The advantage of the brine solution is it’s less expensive than others. “From what I understand of the process, the brine solution is more corrosive than chlorides,” Leep acknowledged. “Farmers have concerns about corrosion, other residents have concerns about road dust.”

He said he doesn’t want to use chlorides because they, too, are corrosive and are also more expensive than the brine solution. Leep said the solution costs about $12,000 a year to apply to the dirt roads; an alternative product could cost between $36,000-$40,000.

A solution made up of petroleum resin and asphalt emulsion has been suggested, too, but Leep said that is too expensive.

“We kind of looked at it, but it was so cost-prohibitive,” he said. He stated for the petroleum-based product “just like gasoline, the price has gone up so fast.”

Leep would like to repave some of the dirt roads with something he calls “double chip-and-seal.” This method involves putting down a layer of flagstone, followed by a layer of tar, then another layer of flagstone.

“The county uses it on a lot of their roads,” he said. “It costs more than calcium chloride, but it’s a more permanent solution.”

He added that applying a solution to the dirt roads for dust control is cheaper initially, but it has to be done twice a year and “at the end of it all, you don’t have anything.”