Environmental Benefits of Liquid Brine [2 of 10]

Environmental-Benefits-of-Liquid-Brine

You may have heard about the concept of using liquids for snow and ice control, but are wondering if there is really any benefit to it over against rock salt. In this post about liquid brine de-icing with Phill Sexton, you will learn the benefits of liquid brine for the environment.

Environmental Contamination

From an awareness standpoint, let's talk about why salt use is so important when we talk about the environment.

Really what it boils down to is that salt is a pollutant we're allowed to apply somewhat unregulated. The environmental protection agency does designate sodium chloride and other salts used in winter management as a pollutant, but we are also allow to use it.

However, we're not really an industry that measures or that is regulated by a standard application rate, and so therefore we're somewhat allowed to put salt down freely; without being regulated. Furthermore though, in the last at least decade now, there has been many consistent studies that have shown a dramatic rise in chloride contamination of fresh water. Because that’s happening, it’s important for us as an industry to understand how we reduce our use without necessarily sacrificing safety or level of service.

I think it's important to keep in mind that from an environmental perspective, chloride contamination is on the rise. Because of the rise of both accumulated pollution of fresh water and the rise of awareness of this, it's important for us as an industry to start to understand strategies of how we reduce our use.

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The Main Causes of Contamination

The bottom line is that research is showing that (just to sort of dispel the argument about where this salt is really coming from) previously it was perceived that most salt use was coming from...

Roads (road crews)
DOTs

The research has now actually been very conclusive to say, "Well, hold on a minute". Nowadays this pollution is actually coming from...

Private parking lots
Private road systems

So that's where the target of opportunity lies. The target is on our back as an industry in order to start solving this. So I think to try to answer the question, "Why would this be a no-brainer?" (changing the way we do things and incorporating liquids in to the process).

Think about the benefits in terms of...

Environmental
Economical
Quality of Service

When you think about it from an environmental perspective, there's really just one major benefit which is...

LESS SALT MEANS LESS POLLUTION, WHICH IS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, BETTER FOR DRINKING WATER, BETTER FOR FRESH WATER RESOURCES IN GENERAL.

I hope this article has helped you understand the environmental benefits of using liquid brine. To shop our variety of liquid brine sprayers, visit our website. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below and we'll get back to you.