DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Area officials are working towards making snow and ice management more eco-friendly.
The city of De Pere leads as an example.
De Pere has been using liquid salt brine for de-icing city roads since 2009.
Salt brine is added to salt to activate it so that it works faster.
“Measuring what we’re putting out, lowering our numbers, and still being efficient because you don’t have to have salt sitting on the road to melt snow. You just got to have the salt brine,” City of De Pere maintenance supervisor Thomas Blohowiak said.
The city is working to inspire other departments to do the same.
Allison Madison with Wisconsin Salt Wise says it’s a more eco-friendly option.
Excess salt on the roads ends up in our fresh water and permanently pollutes it.
“We’re protecting these natural resources, we’re protecting our own groundwater for generations by just using salt as needed,” Madison said.
Not only is the process more eco-friendly, it’s also more cost-effective for residents.
“It’s a combination of saving the city money, less salt you have to purchase, that’s for the taxpayers and then plus being friendly for the environment,” Blohowiak said.
It also protects our infrastructure.
“When we put too much salt down all of that salt corrodes our roads, our bridges, it does damage to our personal vehicles, so right now the science shows that for about every dollar that we spend on salt, we do $10 to infrastructure,” Madison said.
Blohowiak says while making the change was a big investment, it was a good one.
“The biggest investment I guess is the salt brine making equipment. The storage tanks, the hopper for actually making salt brine, that was a big investment that we did probably 10 years ago and now that we have it it’s been a good advance,” Blohowiak said.
Outagamie County has also been using brine as a tool for de-icing since 2008.
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