Representatives from Pacific Enzymes Inc., Sacramento, Calif., have been overseeing the treatment of 84th Street Northwest, beginning at Williams County Road 17 and stretching two miles west, with a product known as Permazyme.How much you wanna bet that if this works, this will be another first for North Dakota to share with other parts of the country. I really have to hand it to our folks in North Dakota to "work" solutions. I don't see much hand-wringing or complaining in the local newspapers; I certainly see a lot of ideas to solve problems, from man camps for influx of workers to molasses to lengthen life of gravel roads.
Bob Johnson, a senior advisor and road specialist for Pacific Enzymes, said the soil stabilization product could be a potential solution to the region's dirt and gravel roads.
"It's revolutionary in that it's a food byproduct we're using to bind with clay material in the road base," said Johnson.
[Update, October 16, 2010: in response to a comment below, I checked out Pacific Enzymes website. It looks pretty impressive. One more reason I love following the Bakken.]
I'll take that bet for any amount you can cover.
ReplyDeleteHess342
Either you're betting that a) this won't work all that well; b) others don't have as a big a problem with gravel and dirt roads; or, c) you're just a compulsive gambler. Ha.
ReplyDeleteBut we know the name of the company (Pacific Enzymes, Inc., Sacramento, CA) so I can write them in about three years and see how this turned out.
Unless you are suggesting that the company has already done this worldwide and North Dakota won't have any bragging rights -- yeah, you're right. It's already been done. This won't be a ND first. Pacific Enzymes has a pretty impressive track record -- see their website.
d)
ReplyDeleteThere's a second and subtle connection to the Bakken. The process shrinks the clay, effectively producing a shale in a few days vs 360 million years. Unfortunately It'll be short on organics.
Hess342
Somehow, somewhere, I see a Norwegian joke in there (I can say that; I love my Norwegian heritage).
ReplyDeleteNorwegian shale. Very, very interesting.