Oregon's dust rules for unpaved roads, lots and yards, in plain English

The rule in one paragraph

Oregon's general dust rule is OAR 340-208-0210, titled Requirements for Fugitive Emissions.¹ Its first line does most of the work. It covers anyone who handles, moves or stores materials, anyone who uses, builds, alters, repairs or tears down a building or a road, and anyone who runs equipment. None of it is allowed without reasonable precautions against dust. The rule puts it this way.

"...without taking reasonable precautions to prevent particulate matter from becoming airborne."

So a gravel yard, a truck lot, or a road a business uses is covered, and the duty is to take reasonable precautions. The rule doesn't set one method. It lists examples.

What counts as reasonable precautions

The rule gives a list of reasonable precautions, and it says the list isn't the limit.¹ Here's what it names.

• Water or chemicals to control dust in demolition, construction, road grading or land clearing.
• "Application of water or other suitable chemicals on unpaved roads, materials stockpiles, and other surfaces which can create airborne dusts."¹
• Full or partial enclosure of stockpiles where water or chemicals aren't enough.
• Hoods, fans and fabric filters where dusty materials are handled.
• Containment during sandblasting and similar work.
• Covering open-bodied trucks carrying material likely to become airborne, whenever they're moving.
• Promptly removing dirt and other material from paved streets.

The second item covers unpaved lots and roads, and it's exactly what a dust control truck does. I pre-wet the surface with water, then spray the lignin.

When dust leaves the property

The rule also covers what happens when dust gets away from you. When fugitive emissions escape a source, the rule lets DEQ order the owner or operator to stop them.¹ For that purpose, fugitive emissions are "visible emissions that leave the property of a source for a period or periods totaling more than 18 seconds in a six-minute period," judged by EPA Method 22 at the downwind property boundary.¹ DEQ may also ask the owner or operator to develop a fugitive emission control plan.

The Medford-Ashland area's dust history

We're based in Medford, so this part is close to home. The U.S. EPA's summary says the Medford area "was designated nonattainment for PM10 and classified as moderate upon enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments in 1990."³ Oregon submitted an attainment plan, a maintenance plan and a redesignation request for the Medford-Ashland area on March 10, 2005, and the EPA summary gives August 18, 2006 as the EPA effective date for the plan.³

The maintenance plan rests on several control strategies, and road dust is one of them. The plan lists industrial controls, residential woodsmoke and open burning controls, road dust controls, prescribed forestry burning controls, and controls on agricultural trackout.³ For where the area stands today, check with Oregon DEQ.

Major industrial sites in the Medford-Ashland area

A second rule, OAR 340-240-0180, applies only in the Medford-Ashland Air Quality Maintenance Area. It requires sawmills, plywood mills and veneer plants, particleboard and hardboard plants, asphalt plants, rock crushers, animal feed manufacturers, and any other major industrial facility DEQ identifies to prepare and carry out a site-specific plan to control fugitive emissions.²

Among the measures those plans can use:

• Systematically paving unpaved roads and areas with vehicle traffic, and until an area is paved, the next item.
• "Scheduled application of water, or other suitable chemicals on unpaved roads, log storage or sorting yards, materials stockpiles, and other surfaces which can create airborne dust. Dust suppressant material must not adversely affect water quality."²
• Sweeping paved roads so material doesn't migrate onto the public road system.

The facility also has to supervise dust caused by outside contractors delivering or removing materials, and it has to submit its plan to DEQ before or within 60 days of permit issuance or renewal.²

On water quality, you should know what the Forest Service's dust palliative guide says about the product group lignin belongs to. It says those products are the most likely to show high BOD results.⁵ BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) measures the oxygen microbes use as they digest a product in water. The guide's advice is to check beforehand whether significant drainage from the treated area could reach streams, ponds or lakes.⁵ So tell me where your site drains, and see what lignin sulfonate is for more.

Why unpaved roads are in the rules

The EPA's PM10 page explains where road dust fits in. It calls particles between 2.5 and 10 micrometers coarse particles, and it says, "Sources of coarse particles include crushing or grinding operations, and dust from paved or unpaved roads."⁴

Who to ask (this isn't legal advice)

For a complaint, a permit condition, or a question about what your site needs, the agency to call is Oregon DEQ. The rule texts are linked in the sources below. If a city or county permit is involved, ask that office too.

How we treat lots and yards

We treat truck lots, lumber and equipment yards, RV parks and multi-acre commercial lots across Jackson and Josephine counties with lignin sulfonate, the one product we apply. We set an appointment, pre-wet with water, then the truck sprays. Trucks can drive on it right away, and it's fully dry in about two hours on a hot summer day. It's built to last the season.

What I can't tell you is whether a treatment satisfies DEQ for your site. That's DEQ's call. More on lot work is on commercial lot and yard dust control, and what moves the quote is in what sets the cost.