Port to put streets on low-sodium winter diet

The Port Washington Street Department will do more plowing and less salting this winter, according to a snow and ice removal policy approved by the Board of Public Works last week.

The policy was adopted by the board at the request of Street Commissioner J.D. Hoile, who said it will help reduce costs and protect the environment.

The salt and chlorides traditionally used in snow and ice removal are “a permanent pollutant” that get into the storm sewers and are ultimately discharged into the lake, Hoile said, and once they get into the water they don’t go away.

“Where do we live? On the water,” he said. “It’s in our best interest to protect that. Any little step we can take to preserve it is huge.”

And, Hoile noted, it costs four times less to remove snow and ice mechanically than chemically.

Plowing is also four times more effective than salting in removing snow, he said.

The new policy essentially eliminates the use of dry salt by the street department, replacing it with pre-wetted salt and other solutions.

“If you just put dry salt down, you need traffic or sunlight to activate it,” Hoile said. “You can be salting in the middle of the night and nothing’s happening.”

Instead, the city will use a salt brine or a compound such as Beet Heet to help with snow and ice removal, he said.

“Wet salt doesn’t bounce off into the gutter lines. It stays on the road where you want it,” Hoile said.

Salt brine — a mixture of salt and water — will be used for de-icing when the temperature is above 20 degrees, and it will be mixed with Beet Heet — a concentrated formula that includes beet molasses — when temperatures are colder.

The brine, Hoile said, doesn’t increase the melting capacity of salt but acts as an igniter so it begins working immediately.

Beet Heet, when mixed with the brine, increases the melting capacity of salt because of the sugars in it. 

“It’s a good ice melter,” Hoile said, and will allow the city to use less salt.

The city’s five salt trucks were retrofitted with equipment to apply the brine this year, he said.

Hoile noted that the street department won’t salt all the city streets unless there are extreme conditions, such as sub-zero temperatures or an ice storm.

For most storms, he said, the main roads will be plowed and treated with salt or a brine mixture while residential streets will only be salted at the curves, hills and intersections. They will, however, be plowed.

“I don’t think this is going to be as drastic as it sounds,” Hoile said. “There are hills everywhere. There are curves everywhere. There are intersections everywhere.”

Hoile said that for large storms, the city plans to treat its roadways with a brine or Beet Heet mixture 24 to 48 hours ahead of time. This will help prevent snow and ice from bonding with the pavement, making it easier for the city plows to remove them.

This, he said, will help eliminate the rutting and icing of the streets.

Brine or wet salt will also be used during the snow removal process as needed to keep the roads safe.

The city is also looking at different types of plow blades for snow removal, Hoile said.

The policy is expected to decrease the city’s costs by 20% this year, he  said.

“I think that’s pretty good,” Hoile said. “The more we can plow and remove chemicals, the better. 

“This is a good first step. For us, it’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve.

The policy will be revised as the city learns from its experiences, Hoile said. “We’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “This is just year one. It’s something we can build on.”