Salt your popcorn, not the street

Green Cathedral
The Angelus, February 2008

If you have lived in Kansas City for at least one winter, you know that we get a generous amount of snow and ice every year. Local governments are responsible for clearing the streets and highways to keep them safe. Also, many of us use ice melts to keep our porches and driveways clear. Some of the chemicals in these products can be very hazardous for vegetation and sewer systems, but luckily there are alternatives.

The most damaging ice melts include sodium chloride (rock salt) and calcium chloride (liquid brine). As they melt ice and the water runs off into the ground, these products can kill grass, flowers and other plants. Other ice melts are based on fertilizers, such as potassium chloride, which can be less damaging to vegetation but will damage concrete. Even after driving on treated roads, water dripping from your car can even eat away the floor of your garage!

You can consider several environmentally-friendly alternatives that are safe for plants and concrete. Acetates, such as sodium acetate, calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) and potassium acetate, are environmentally friendly, biodegradable and non-corrosive (www.peterschemical.com). They may not be useful on sidewalks because they give snow and ice an oatmeal-like texture. Also, they can be much more expensive than other ice melts. Compare the added cost to the expense of repairing your lawn and you might find it worth a try.

Another technique for clearing ice from your driveway, if you can get away with it, is to do nothing and let the sun take care of it. This is not an option for many people, but because it doesn’t take any time, money, effort or chemicals, Mother Nature may have the best solution.

You probably can’t get this for yourself yet, but MoDOT has started using something new to help de-ice highways in Missouri: sugar beets. The product is called Geomelt and is a mixture of the liquid residue that is left after the beets are processed for sugar combined with rock salt or liquid brine. The resulting solution melts ice at a lower temperature than salt alone, and it is less corrosive for vehicles and roads. They can apply it before a winter storm to help prevent freezing, or after ice has formed to melt it. MoDOT has been testing Geomelt in parts of Missouri for a couple of years and hopes to use it statewide soon. (Read the press release here.) Hopefully, this is a trend that will help move us away from using damaging chemicals to keep things ice-free.