So we live on a very dusty road. Huge clouds of dust fly up any time someone drives by, and there is quite a bit of traffic (boarding barn). It’s not my road, so I can’t just pave the thing either. Has anyone dealt with a similar issue? What did you do? I was thinking privacy trees/bushes but those take forever to grow, and I have about 300-400 feet road frontage which would make putting in trees very costly.
Some people around here oil the road along their frontage. Really looks to work well at reducing the dust.
honestly I wouldn’t want oil, since that can’t be good for all the dogs in the area, walking on and licking paws…
You have two options: block dust or reduce dust.
Blocking:
A tall privacy fence will help somewhat. But that will cost $$$, if the HOA would even let you.
There are fast growing shrubs that will help, if you don’t mind the look of them across your property front. I believe https://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/11/great-evergreens-for-screens-and-hedges-3/ can recommend appropriate varieties for our area.
Reduce:
how about a generic lawn sprinkler that waters the road portion in front of your house? Just keep it on a timer for before the high traffic times. Since you’re on a well, cost should be minimal, though it won’t work well all winter when the hose will freeze. (luckily it’s not as dusty that time of the year anyway)
It would take a tremendous amount of water to make a difference-- the days when dust conditions are most prevalent are the days when water will readily evaporate. No way would I drain my well by spraying the road. At my employer’s construction sites, we’d go through multiple water trucks every day to keep dust down.
All the rural counties out here offer a permit process for dust control on roads. I’d check with your Secondary Roads department about what you can do.
Here, the county offers a choice of a few contractors, you pay the contractor directly, and the county and contractors work together to ensure that your treated section of the road is not scraped/graded during the summer.
Lignin (tree sap) and Magnesium Chloride are two common options. The former works best in dry/arid environments since it physically binds the dust, the latter works best where there is ambient humidity since it attracts water to the road surface.
Planting a dense line of shrubs helps but that’s obviously a longer-term endeavor (and it’s only partly effective). We have a line of sumac that’s dense enough to completely block view of the road-- and the one year Mr HH decided to cheap out and not pay for dust control, our house was so dusty. You could draw in the dust on every surface that was near windows. (YMMV if you tend to have house sealed up and run the A/C. We have windows open all summer-- with shade trees and cross breezes, we hardly ever need A/C.)
It costs about $500 for two applications during summer, which is enough to get good results all summer.
Magnesium Chloride. It’s dry as the desert in summer here, I have Mag Chlor sprayed on my arena every year and it works great. It’s commonly sprayed on gravel roads and parking lots for same reason.
Simkie: Oiling is illegal last time I checked 
I don’t want to EPA knocking on my door :lol:
ElementFarm: If I recall correctly, there are no restrictions on planting bushes, so they don’t have a choice if I want to put up bushes
HungarianHippo: the lingin sounds interesting, and I like that it isn’t a corrosive material like salt can be. I am concerned that the HOA won’t allow me to do something like that to the road though. How long did it take for the sumac to grow in?
Welp, maybe it was something like what HungarianHippo talks about. Or the same sort of oil as boarding barns use on their arenas. I doubt that those people were doing something illegal, but their section of road sure wasn’t dusty like the rest of it.
Here, if you ask, they will oil the road with a safe mix of used canola oil and something else. Don’t know what it costs, don’t find a need for it but some do have them spray down along frontage
Seems like the HOA should be as concerned about dust as you are.
Def don’t plant sumac, it’s invasive as all get-out-- we’re just stuck with it because it was there and it’s so flipping hard to eradicate :lol: I just focus on containing it to the one ditch along the road, and even that is a PITA – mowing only encourages new shoots, and it takes repeated applications of fairly hardcore chemicals to kill it.
You might look instead to something like miscanthus grass-- be sure to get the sterile variety miscanthus x giganteus since the common landscaping variety is also somewhat invasive (but, unlike sumac, it’s easily controlled with RoundUp so not as big a PITA). Within 2-3 years miscanthus giganteus will be 10+ft tall, and if planted densely, will be nearly impenetrable. Deer don’t seem to like it, either. Dies back every winter and you can mow the dry canes close to the ground as long as you wait until it’s totally dry & leaves have dropped (senescence). (If you mow it before that, you’ll deplete the rhizomes and it won’t be perennial.) To establish a new stand, you’d need to prepare the ground by tilling, and you have to bury rhizomes (it’s not a seed). So, it’s a somewhat intensive effort the first year, but then you’re set to roll for a decade or more.
Leland cypress planted in double rows, offset, like this:
X X X X X X
X X X X X
the double row is prettier and if space allows, will make a huge difference.
I also live next door to a boarding barn, on a gravel road. I have not found anything to keep the dust down, sadly, and we are planning to sell and move in part because the owners and their boarders can’t be courteous and drive reasonably slow enough. We have children, dogs, and various farm animals and while they are all contained or supervised, there is the occasional escape and I am worried someone will get run over eventually. Probably my best dog, or our barn cat (who even my not-a-cat-person DH likes). The dust is a secondary factor.
Sorry. You can try bushes or trees but the dust clouds will still drift if the wind blows your way. If you and the other neighbors are friendly you could see about pooling money to get the whole road sprayed or oiled.
[QUOTE=StormyDay;8950339]
So we live on a very dusty road. .[/QUOTE]
Is the road public or private?
If private then there are possible repercussions under North Carilina air pollition standards 15A NCAC 02D .0540 PARTICULATES FROM FUGITIVE DUST EMISSION SOURCES
https://ncdenr.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Air%20Quality/rules/rules/D0540.pdf
Lots of small public dirt roads around here that lead to very expensive properties. Dusty cars, etc kind of goes with the territory.
I agree with others, little to nothing can be down that will make much if any difference. If it’s a private road and not very long it might be worth contacting your local DOT office and find out if they are or are planing to resurface any roads in the area. They generally scrape the old surface off and truck it away to a land fill or someone’s private property for a fee. So they are happy to bring it someplace closer for free. At least they were around here.
Most roads are contracted to private companies. If you see a resurfacing project in the area stop and talk to the foreman. That’s what I did.
This stuff is great to use for this sort of thing and or around the farm. If the property is located close to the project they should be happy to truck and dump it. Talk to the driver when it gets there and offer to tip some cash if they will set the dump gate so as to drive and spread it as it dumps. Other wise you will need a tractor with a FEL to move around and spread. Does’t take a lot of driving over to pack down tight and hard.
Might be worth the call and get on their list when a project comes up in the area.
[QUOTE=clanter;8951681]
Is the road public or private?
If private then there are possible repercussions under North Carilina air pollition standards 15A NCAC 02D .0540 PARTICULATES FROM FUGITIVE DUST EMISSION SOURCES
https://ncdenr.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Air%20Quality/rules/rules/D0540.pdf[/QUOTE]
Yea, right. I am sure the state will get right on it with a couple of complaints.
Sorry couldn’t resist.
After thinking it over, I am pretty sure i will have to go with some sort of barrier, not dust control on the road itself. There are too many obstacles to overcome to try and fight with that. Luckily I am far enough off the road that I don’t have dust inside my house, but it does coat the grass up there and I think it is the cause of a recent sand colic in one of my horses.
Hungarian Hippo: Do you know if the horses will eat that grass? They will be able to reach over the fence to touch whatever I plant.
jdobbs: Thanks for the website, those trees seem to grow pretty fast! I am worried that dust could get under them though. I am thinking more like a hedge.
I have no experience with miscanthus around horses, so I won’t vouch for it one way or another. Lots of literature out there about it-- I think the Missouri and Iowa state extension offices have fact sheets online, and your local extension office could probably advise.
You could look at green giant arborvitae (they grow faster than Leylands and have a deeper root systems as well as being branched to the ground) or if you want to go the hedge route- privet, forsythia, burning bush, rose of sharon are all fairly fast growing, attractive, inexpensive and form tight hedges (caveat that some states may have restrictions on burning bush and some types of privet)
