Deicing Salt

by Amanda Dalecky, Katherine Temple, and Brian Tuccillo

Introduction

Deicing salt (sodium chloride) was first used in the 1930's, but it was not widely used to control snow and ice until the 1960's. Today salt is a major part of the winter season.

Deicing salt provides safety and essential mobility for motorists, commercial vehicles, and police, fire and other emergency vehicles, but there are many drawbacks to its use. First, salt is an extremely corrosive agent and eats away at cars and roadways. Second, salt is environmentally toxic at high concentrations. Thus, it damages roadside vegetation and leaches into groundwater, causing potentially harmful effects to those who use the aquifer. Third, once snow turns to slush, it, along with the salt, is plowed aside, resulting in a sudden flush into the environment. Then more salt must be added to continue the deicing action. This constant reapplication of salt requires significant man-hours and results in the annual use of about nine million tons on U.S. roads. Also, in heavy snowfalls, salting can result in a slippery layer of packed, bonded snow on roads. Finally, while salt itself is inexpensive, its environmental and corrosive effects are extremely costly and wasteful.

For these reasons, there is much criticism regarding the use of salt for deicing. As a result, there has been a recent push toward the use of alternative methods such as anti-icing chemicals. Total abandonment of the use of salt, however, will take years or possibly decades to accomplish.

Source: The Salt Institute: www.saltinstitute.org

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Deicing Salt

by Amanda Dalecky, Katherine Temple, and Brian Tuccillo

Table of Contents

Introduction

Environmental Impacts

Corrosion

Economics

Alternatives to Deicing Salt

Conclusion and References

Introduction