An article in today's Seattle Times, by Susan Kelleher, highlights the different strategies being used by major jurisdictions across our region for dealing with the compact snow and ice that have plagued our streets for more than a week.
Unlike most other cities and transportation authorities, like the Washington State Department of Transportation, the City of Seattle has elected to not use salt to clear local roadways. Instead Seattle officials have elected to only use sand, which is placed on top of the snow and ice.
So why has the City of Seattle elected to forgo salt in favor of sand?
According to Alex Wiggins, the chief of staff for the City's Department of Transportation , the City has, "decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."
Despite Seattle's environmental concerns for the Puget Sound other local jurisdictions have been using alternatives such as salt to help keep up with the conditions. As noted in today's Timesarticle, Kelleher points out that other jurisdictions are wary of sand due to the same environmental concern expressed by Seattle officials for their local water quality.
Ann Williams, spokeswoman for Denver's Department of Public Works said:
"We never use sand...sand causes dust, and there's also water-quality issues where it goes into streets and into our rivers"
In fact, earlier this year the Puget Sound Partnership released their road map to protecting and restoring the Puget Sound. A center piece of the Partnership's plan is a study done by the State Department of Ecology which noted that more than fifty-two million pounds, or approximately twenty-six thousand tons, of sediment, metals and other materials are washed into the Sound annually. In comparison the City of Seattle has pored more than six thousand tons, or about one-fifth of the total annual tonnage reported by Ecology, on to City streets within the past week.
So is sand really better for the environment?
Diane Spector, a water resource planner with Wenck Associates told the Times that:
"The occasional application of salt is probably not going to have a lasting effect...it's highly dependent on where it's used, how often and how much is applied."
Finally this little nugget according to Wiggins at the Seattle Department of Transportation:
"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective."
So despite the acknowledgment that salt is effective and would bring immediate relief to the taxpayers and businesses in the area, the City of Seattle will continue to use sand because they believe it is better for the environment, although others clearly disagree.