Community Development
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Help Prevent Water Pollution This
Winter!
Winter brings with it many fun activities, such as sledding, ice
hockey, ice skating and skiing. However, winter also means
mounds of snow to shovel and layers of ice to remove from
our sidewalks and driveways. We often make the job easier by
applying deicers like salt.
Besides sodium chloride, many deicers also contain chemicals
like cyanide. When ice melts, the salts and chemicals dissolve
and flow into street drains that lead directly to the river,
endangering aquatic life.
You can help protect our aquatic ecosystems by following these
tips to reduce salt use and prevent pollution:
• Remove the elements: The most important step in deicing
is to physically remove as much snow and ice as possible
before applying any deicing material. Use a shovel to
remove snow and break up the ice before you add another
layer of deicer to your sidewalk or driveway. Adding more
deicing material without removing what has melted can
result in over-application, meaning more salt and chemicals
end up in the river.
• Limit access: You can also reduce salt use by limiting access
to you home to one entrance. For every doorway that is not
used, there will be less salt running into the catch basin in
your street.
• Try an alternative: Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA)
was developed as a deicing alternative because it has fewer
adverse environmental impacts than salt and doesn’t cause
corrosion.
• Reduce your salt use: By limiting the amount of salt we
use on sidewalks and driveways, we reduce the amount of
polluted storm water washing into our waterways.
Help keep our waters healthy year-round and always remember
you can make a difference.
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