I heard they are in car-hoots with the auto lobby to make salt blends to make cars disintagrate faster.  Detroit design obsolescence engineers are factoring this all in!

The largest salt mines in the world our under our city, and Cargil is a big boy.  They give our local salt applicators deep discounts.  They are HUGE HUGE and real silent around here.  They even have an eatery, halite named after em.   I wand a tour of their mines BAD BAD BAD.  NASA has research operations down there.

You know Cargill wants to be a 'sustainable' enterprise.  Cant you tell with their natural resource extraction based business model? 

http://www.cargill.com/news/media/040415staley.htm

I prefer to escape underground.   Where is the elevator to Eden II, I booked a rsvp at the day spa there for a salt scrub and kelp wrap... oh shite cancel that. 

I am certain you are right about this. Living in Cleveland I accept a car begins decaying the first winter here, destroyed by community leadership uninterested in more progressive snow management practices - and I understand the new deicing substances they are using on the roads is worse than the salt that has been destroying our cars and environment for decades. But, further, consider this... last night, as the blizzard was in rare form, I had to run some errands. Living in Ohio City, everything I need is within a few blocks of me - I could have walked where I needed to go. Still, I drove. And, since I didn't have far to go, it was not a big deal at all getting around Ohio City, even though I haven't seen one plow or salt truck on these streets now 24 hours into the storm. In Ohio City, no traffic, no rage, no hassle. But go near a main road - Detroit into Lakewood, for example, and bumper to bumper road rage. Now, imagine living in a livable city, like Ohio City, and not having to bump, bump, bump 30 miles home, and then imagine a region where few people bump, bump, bump 30 miles home, and so no salt needed on 1,000s of miles of roads... so add all the costs of your posting to the cost of sprawl.

Disrupt IT

In New Hampshire, where the roads can be treacherous this time of year, they use sand, but it is not perfect either.

Currently I have been exchanging posts with Tim Ferris about shoveling sidewalks so that neighbors can walk -- not in the street. Right now, my back and shoulders are exhausted from shoveling late last night. The very heavy foot of snow had to be removed so my husband could get into the driveway of our home. I haven't tackled the sidewalk yet today.

However, regarding the issue of passable sidewalks -- to shovel or not;sand is a method for addressing the concern about pedestrians and the slip and fall insurance issue. Not only that, but when sand is swept onto our compacted urban soils, it helps them to drain. We have had great success adding sand to our backyard. When we bought the house 16 years ago, the soil in the backyard was akin to a clay pot. Aeration was a joke; we had to have it done professionally for several years, because the rental machines that we could push simply rolled atop the lawn. We have engaged in plenty of digging and adding homemade compost, aeration, deep raking and adding coarse sand and we are nearing something much more workable. Finally! I am surprised that more people haven't discovered sand for the slippery sidewalk issue. You do have to be careful however not to apply it where it will wash off into the storm drain (ours drains to a compacted soil laden tree lawn unless I get it swept to the front yard before a spring rain).

   

The jury is still out on the sand/salt roadway isse, but here is a discussion of the issue from the EPA. In this weather, Telecommuting is a better plan than requiring the salt sprayers to salinate the wetlands or snading to add to the particulates and the storm sewers.

If you are ready to read about snowiness, here you go -- Have Snow Shovel, Will Travel: A History of Snow Removal.