Using Cheese, Molasses Brine To Treat Roads With Less Salt

Spring Harbor’s water source is a well at one of the lowest points in the neighborhood. Every winter when the snow and ice melt, more than 100 tons of road salt that people spray and spread on the neighborhood’s roads and sidewalks runs into the soil. Eventually, some of it makes its way into the well.Most Spring Harbor residents can’t tell exactly what’s different about the taste of their water — at least not yet. But Madison’s water utility warns that if the chloride level in the water continues to rise, the salty taste will be unmistakable. At that point, the utility may have to rebuild the well to filter out the minerals or shut it down.In the last 40 years, Midwestern and Northern states have dramatically increased their use of salt as a de-icer. The sodium chloride has seeped into the nation’s lakes and waterways and wells, where it is increasingly threatening drinking water, aquatic life, fisheries, irrigation and recreation, according to a new study that is the first to detail the extent of the problem on a national scale.As the environmental effects become clearer, many state and local agencies in states such as Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin are trying to use less road salt, and to convince the public to do the same. They are using technology to monitor weather conditions to decide when to use salt, and when not to. They are ratcheting up their use of liquid salt brine, which allows them to use less road salt and makes it stick better. And they are training their employees and the public to use as little salt as required to do the job.