Environmental Impacts of Winter Maintenance Stephen McCracken, Mark DeVries, Wilf Nixon, April 2014 APWA Iowa Spring Meeting

Outline Why Bother? How to protect the road user and the environment Activities in Illinois April 2014APWA Iowa Spring Meeting

Why Bother? Lots of Reasons Using salt sensibly is going to save salt (and money) while not negatively impacting your levels of service Much, much better to regulate yourself than have somebody else regulate you By the time a stream or watershed has a chloride TMDL designated, it is too late… April 2014APWA Iowa Spring Meeting

Protecting the Road User and Environment We do not use salt to melt snow – it is simply to melt the bond between snow and road We plow off the snow, not burn it off That means we do not need much salt to achieve our goals Use as much as we need, but no more Lots of guidance out there April 2014APWA Iowa Spring Meeting

Mother Nature Wins Sometimes, she does When it (the pavement) gets too cold for salt to work (below about 15 F) then applying salt is not useful It will not do any significant melting before you come around again At which point, it will simply be plowed into the ditch So, be smart about your salt use… April 2014APWA Iowa Spring Meeting