Posted on December 30th, 2008
Worth its weight in salt
Yenta
Salt or sand?
To salt or sand?
These two materials are commonly used in the Tri-County Area for de-icing surfaces such as roads and parking lots. But they can also have a detrimental impact on the environment. Here is a comparison:
Salt
• Depletes oxygen supply needed by aquatic animals and plants.
• Leaches into the ground and changes the soil composition, making it difficult for plants to survive.
• Leaches into groundwater, which sometimes flows to surface water. Both are sources of drinking water.
• Deteriorates paved surfaces, buildings and other infrastructures.
Sand
• Buries the aquatic floor life, fills in habitats and clouds water.
• Erodes stream banks and other landscapes as it is carried to the surface waters by storm water runoff.
• Causes premature deterioration of flooring as it is tracked into buildings.
• Loses its effectiveness after mixed in snow and ice.
• Enters catch basins, storm drains and surface waters if not swept up each spring.
• Contributes to plugged storm drains, which can cause flooding.
Source: University of Michigan Department of Occupational Safety & Environmental Health
For most, the question of which one is more environmentally safe to use on our roadways is not as important as long as the streets are clear of ice and snow.
But for environmentalists and local road engineers, the answer to the question of which substance to de-ice the region’s roadways with could affect the health of streams, plants and wildlife.
In the western United States, the use of sand as a de-icer has led to a controversy over whether it should be employed over salt. Recent criticism has focused on Seattle’s use of sand solely to de-ice streets, where some environmentalists claim it creates air pollution, damages waterways by clogging streams, and kills insects vital to the food chain.
“There is an environmental concern,” Shane Larson, an operations engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation’s District 4, which covers the Peoria region. “We just feel like if we use our salt wisely, we’ll get the job done and not really have to worry about the environmental issues with the clean up of sand.”
IDOT does not mix sand with salt, primarily because salt on its own is better to use on the higher volume roads that the state oversees.
The city of Peoria, however, has used a two-part sand mix with salt since last year when the city dipped into its reserves and used about 5,000 more tons of salt than expected to help treat residential streets.
The main attraction with using sand is it’s considerably cheaper. A ton of sand runs about $10, whereas a ton of salt jumped for Peoria to $47.57 from $36.57 last year.
Public Works Director Dave Barber said he is not concerned with major environmental problems arising from adding sand into the mix. He said if sand washes away into a catch basin or storm drain, the city can come back to clean it out.
But Barber said he is concerned with applying too many chemicals on roads. The city wants to limit its salt use this winter to 9,000 tons, about half of what it used last year. So far this month, Peoria has used 3,500 tons of salt.
“Both materials have some effect on the environment,” Barber said.
Mike Miller, chief naturalist with the Forest Park Nature Center, said sand can cause an engineering headache for local governments, but it’s less of an environmental hazard in central Illinois than salt.
He said with sand, the concerns are more with having it settle in a storm sewer, which can lead to flooding.
Fish are less likely to be affected in central Illinois than the Pacific Northwest if sand runs off from the roads into the waterways, Miller said. The reasons for this has to do with the type of fish species in the area and the fact that central Illinois’ waters are murkier and less rocky than in the west, he added.
“Here … the little amount of sand from our roadways will not affect them,” Miller said.
He said salt, with its high chloride concentration, is more of a environmental problem. Increased use of salt during a winter can cause damage to plant roots and kill vegetation.
Salt is also a statewide concern, especially in the northern suburbs of Chicago where a combination of high volumes of traffic and rough winters lead to high usage.
But state officials don’t believe sand is a concern to Illinois’ environment.
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