Portland begins cleaning sand and gravel off roadways after recent snow storm

This link brings you to an article about the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and how they use sand and gravel to provide traction for cars on the road, and the cleanup afterward. While cleaning up the sand and gravel may seem tedious, I believe that it is a much better alternative than an excessive use of salt to remove ice and snow. Salt is NOT a replacement for snow shoveling and plowing. Sand is a much more environmentally conscious way to prevent ice from being a problem. It can be removed after the ice and snow have gone, and if some of it remains in the environment, it moves along with the rest of the sediment that is in the system. However, salt will dissolve into snow and ice, and move with it into the groundwater, lakes, and streams. There it will remain. As water evaporates, salt stays behind. As water goes through the ground the salt can get trapped, and increase the salinity of the soil. Since both groundwater, and surface waterbodies are used for drinking water, this salt stays in our water- since no treatment short of evaporating the water (which uses a lot of energy for a small yield) and reverse osmosis (which is expensive, and you end up with brine that must be disposed of) will remove the salt, people drink salty water. This can be an issue for people who are older, or younger, those with heart conditions, and a variety of other ailments-let alone the impact that salty water will have on the plants and animals in the system.

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