The following investigation by Team 4 Investigator Jim Parsons first aired on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m. on Nov. 15, 2005.

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The material is called MC70.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plans to start spreading it on road shoulders and on gravel roads in the spring.

Several weeks ago, PennDOT workers gave the substance a test run on a gravel road in Beaver County.

The results were not only messy, but as our Team 4 investigation discovered, the stuff is also toxic.

PennDOT spread 10,000 gallons of MC70 -- a petroleum-based product with a kerosene additive -- on Watts Mill Road.

And after Team 4 drove one mile down the road, the fenders and doors of the car were sprayed, and the wheel wells and tires covered with oozing, gooey oil.

"This is thousands of gallons of oil," said Chuck Hrelec.

Hrelec lives on Watts Mill Road, a 2.5-mile pathway through a state game land, across the North Country hiking trail and over Little Beaver Creek.

"I can't understand how anybody could think this is a sound thing to do out in the environment like this," said Hrelec.

Team 4 wondered the same thing, especially after Team 4 witnessed the oil drip off of passing cars onto the steel grate bridge over the creek. And when you look down onto the water's surface, you can see what's happening -- oil in the creek.

In addition to the oil's impact on fish life in Little Beaver Creek and the fact that the creek runs into a watershed about a mile downstream, there's another potential impact. The creek runs through a state game land, where deer drink the water, hunters kill the deer and then hunters consume the venison.

Team 4 scooped up some of the MC70, put it in a glass jar and took it to a private independent lab.

The test results showed toxic levels of arsenic, chromium, barium and selenium.

This means there are hazardous chemicals on the road, on cars and clothes and in the creek.

"Those are chemicals that are definitely hazardous. You want to make sure that they are not getting in contact with either ground water or surface water. Those are things to be concerned about," said Myron Arnowitt or Clean Water Action.

So, why would PennDOT do this?

"We used it as a dust suppressant, which is a great safety enhancement," said PennDOT's Jeff Karr.

Karr approved the use of MC70 on Watts Mill Road, and also plans next spring to spread it on hundreds of miles of road shoulders throughout Allegheny and Beaver counties.

He said MC70 doesn't usually take several days to set firm, like it did on Watts Mill Road.

"It's a statewide approved product (approved) by our central office," said Karr.

And, believe it or not, MC70 is also approved by the State Department of Environmental Protection.

In fact, DEP has no specific restrictions on the spreading of MC70 to control dust.

But the DEP does place very tight restrictions on using another product for dust control on dirt roads -- brine.

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Related: Team 4 Investigator Jim Parsons looks at brine. Click here for more on that investigation.

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For example, brine -- a byproduct of gas and oil drilling -- can't be spread closer than 150 feet to any waterway.

What's in brine?

The DEP said it's just salt water.

"We pushed it back 150 feet to make sure there was no impact on the streams," said DEP Deputy Secretary J. Scott Roberts.

When asked what could the possible impact be if placement was not careful next to streams, Roberts answered, "Well, just having the elevated levels of salt in a freshwater stream."

So, because of its salt content, brine cannot be used for dust control next to a stream, but MC70 -- which contains toxic chemicals -- can.

"No, there is not a specific regulation," said Helen Humphries of the DEP.

When Team 4 asked why is there a specific regulation for brine, which DEP said is nothing more than salt water, Humphries responded, "There are all kinds of products, all kinds of chemicals that are used, by companies and individuals. We don't have regulations for each specific product."

And because there are no specific regulations or permits required for MC70, the DEP has no way to know whether PennDOT is polluting waterways unless citizens call in to complain.

How often does that happen?

The DEP has cited PennDOT only twice statewide in the past three years for water pollution.

Neither case resulted in a fine.

"DEP doesn't like to take on big entities and PennDOT is a very big entity," said Arnowitt.

A PennDOT worker, who asked to remain anonymous, told Team 4 that no one is checking to see what he and his co-workers spread on dirt roads.

"We usually have oil, tar material left over from our work. And at the end of the season, if there's tar and oil, we have to get rid of it," said the worker. "So, what they usually do is mix it together and put it in a tanker truck and go on some back road and spray it."

Environmental attorney and former DEP official Bob Ging said it's time for the state to regulate all dust control materials the same way.

"It's not a sound environmental practice to use pollutants to control dust," said Ging. "I think that private citizens and small businesses that have been fined by DEP for much lesser violations would be outraged to find that DEP is allowing this kind of thing to happen without taking any action."

The DEP said it has no plans to regulate MC70.

So, come springtime, Team 4 will be keeping an eye on how PennDOT uses this stuff.