The recent studies asking the goverenment to label road salt as hazardous are
the ones I refer to. From what I see here:
http://search.cbc.ca/search?ie=&site=CBC&output=xml_no_dtd&client=CBC&lr=&getfields=description&proxystylesheet=CBC&oe=&searchWeb=cbc&q=road+salt&x=12&y=14
. . . it's been going on for quite a while.
Critters harmed by salt? I believe that deer come out onto the road to lick it
off the asphalt at some cyclical point in their development. ( growing
antlers? ) Someone told me that he read that.
If we ban salt, then what happens when you have packed snow on your highways
and you get a sudden thaw? That'll be greasy too. And, there'll be pot holes
and water puddles . . .
It may be simpler to do as we do up here. Pay lots of taxes and let them
continually fix the roads and garages. :)
> From: "Bud Osbourne" <abcoz@hky.com>
> Wasn't there some sort of Canadian government environmental study that
> determined that road salt should be labeled a hazardous material?
> I'd love to see an honest-to-gosh, no holds barred study done on the actual
> cost of using salt as a highway deicing agent. You know, something that
> would include infrastructure damage, personal property damage (cars, trucks,
> roadside plants & shrubbery, etc.), water and soil contamination, and damage
> to wildlife (there's GOTTA be some little critter that's been endangered by
> the use of road salt). Then, there are highway accidents caused by road
> conditions negatively effected by salt.....like, have you ever noticed how
> salt, spread on a few inches of nice, fresh, powdery snow will turn that
> same snow into a "greasy", treacherous mess, which will pull your car
> sharply to one side. How about the way salt hold moisture on pavement,
> until it freezes, again? All of these, and others which I've overlooked,
> need to be answered.
> Recently, in my area, part of a bridge, carrying a secondary road over I-70,
> collapsed onto the Interstate. Luckily, no one was killed, although a woman
> and her child were injured, when their car slid into the downed girder.
> Salt corrosion is thought to be a major cause of the collapse, and there are
> hundreds of bridges across the state which are now suspected to be unsafe,
> due to the corrosion.
> What it all boils down to is: If we eliminate road salt, and other corrosive
> deicing agents, will people finally learn how to drive in inclement weather
> conditions? I have very serious doubts about that.
> Bud Osbourne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> On Behalf Of Robert Duquette
> Some environmental groups in Ontario, Canada made a recommendation that we
> ( to oversimplify ) ban road salt and make winter tires mandatory and reduce
> the speed limit during winter. I doubt that that is going to happen.
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