I've finally finished shovelling the driveway, feeling my shirt moist with sweat under my Canada Goose parka, and my shoulders and arms in a post-work out burn. My eyes sweep over the drive and walkway, squinting under the glare of the sun off the ice that my shovel just couldn't quite remove, in spite of my tireless effort to do so. I shuffle my boots across the ice and into the garage heaving up the 25kg bag of salt and carry it back out under my arm like a baby rescued from a burning building, and begin dowsing the ice with heaps of this magic crystalline substance: good on food, good on ice... My dinner guests arrive in an hour--just enough time for the ice to melt so their little ones don't slide and slam into the stair rails...
It's 10:30pm on a snow-swept major Calgary 6-lane road. A woman and her son are coming home from gymnastics when suddenly a pick-up truck in the oncoming lane leaps like a wild bull over the guard rail and slams through their windshield, leaving both parties dead on impact. Some blame the speed of the truck, still others saw the lack of snow clearing to be the problem. They don't use salt in Alberta... "Great for protecting paint-jobs!" is the usual retort to criticisms against Calgary road clearing. "Sure," I sardonically agree, "until two or more slam into each other..."
A necessary evil? Perhaps. In 2000, a 5-year study of the impact of road salt on the environment was completed, concluding that the ice-melting substance is toxic to the environment, especially in large quantities. Road salt can lead to damage of vegetation, soil, plants, fish, and other wildlife. And the chloride ions from the salt eventually find their way into waterways, whether through direct run-off, or under ground through the soil. Not only can this impact fish not adaptable to saline water but also can turn drinking water salty.
At the same time, it works. When there's salt in mass quantity, there's no excuse for unnecessary road deaths such as that described in Calgary. To dwell in the middle of this dilemma is indeed a wise response. With that, here are some tips for keeping the salt down (pun intended):
1. Use salt alternatives: These can be sand, kitty litter, or other deicing products that don't contain salt.
2. Shovel often: It's easy when snow storms roll in consecutively over a week to just let your driveway go to heck; but it's better to bundle up, get out there and clear it as it comes, rather than try to lift a half-ton of snow in one go. It's easy to just lay a bunch of salt on it and hope for the best, but that isn't always the best strategy; for including the environmental impact, salt doesn't melt snow at minus 10-degrees celsius and lower.
3. Purchase deicing product early: If you are going to buy an alternative deicing product, do so before the snowstorm arrive to avoid sold-out products and thus being forced to buy salt.
4. Use sparingly: A lot of salt goes a long way. You don't need to drop the whole 25kg bag of salt over your walkway, in spite of that being a popular practice on roads and parking lots. The recommended application rate for rock salt is about a handful per square meter treated (after you have scraped as much ice and snow as possible). Using more salt than this won't speed up the melting process. Even less salt is needed if you are using calcium chloride (about a handful for every three square metres treated - or about the area of a single bed). If you have a choice, pick calcium chloride over sodium chloride. Calcium chloride works at much lower temperatures and is applied at a much lower rate.
While harming the environment, salt can protect people from nasty falls on driveways and sidewalks as well as prevent vehicle accidents. Using salt moderately is simply the responsible thing to do.
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