If not salt, then what?; Towns mull over their options
As road salt prices surge nearly four times higher than last year amid limited supplies, some Lake County towns are considering environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Several municipalities met Wednesday with the Lake County Department of Transportation to discuss options, such as beet juice and calcium/sodium chloride, that may cost less in the long run by helping conserve salt.
The county uses a mixture of 75 percent salt brine, 15 percent sugar beet juice and 10 percent calcium chloride to de-ice its 800 lane miles of roadways. It started using the mixture last year on all county trucks.
"You see more effective melting of the snow, and then you can cut back on your salt usage," said Kevin Kerrigan, engineer of maintenance for the Lake County Division of Transportation. "You can't really substitute (salt)."
Kerrigan said there is a renewed interest in alternates and additives since the price of road salt rose from $41.65 per ton last year to $145 to $165 per ton this year.
Prices are at a premium largely because last year's severe winter depleted salt stockpiles, making demand greater than supplies.
Towns considering using a liquid mixture similar to Lake County's would have to bear the upfront costs of purchasing equipment such as holding tanks and spraying systems, which may be a deterrent for smaller towns.
The county has 25 calibrated trucks that apply 10 gallons of the liquid mixture per ton of rock salt along 25 snow plow routes. Its effectiveness lies in how the mixture is applied. It is spread before a snowfall so it prevents ice from forming, and doesn't bounce and scatter like road salt.
"We don't have the capabilities right now, based on our equipment and such, to work with that," Island Lake Mayor Tom Hyde said. "It's something that we're reviewing. It might be a way in the future to reduce your cost and still have the effectiveness of volume. I think everybody's looking at trying to reduce the amount of salt that we're using."
Many counties, townships, municipalities and other agencies that are part of the state's joint purchasing agreement for salt are awaiting word whether supplies will come through. The state purchasing contract failed to secure a salt vendor for Lake and McHenry counties and some Cook County towns.
Lake Zurich officials hope to maximize what little salt they secured from a supplier outside the state contract. The village bought 2,500 tons of salt at $127.46 a ton.
"We're going to be looking at doing a greater blend of sand and salt ... to explore an alternative to salt and look for greener technologies that are less harmful," village administrator Bob Vitas said. "We did everything last year except beet juice."
High salt prices may force communities to realize the dangers of excessive salt draining into inland lakes, streams and rivers, causing long-term ecological damage, said Mike Adam, senior biologist for the Lake County Health Department's Lakes Management Unit.
"It is encouraging," he said. "I think that's kind of a wake-up call for a lot of people in terms of what they are going to do in the future. Hundred percent elimination may not be achievable, but certainly a reduction of salt without compromising public safety."