Environmental Impacts of Winter MaintenanceStephen McCracken, Mark DeVries, Wilf Nixon,

April 2014APWA 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