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Winter Maintenance Training to Protect our Lakes and Rivers

Winter maintenance is a problem for our watersEspecially the chlorides in salt

Distribution of road salt applications in the Twin Cities

Metropolitan area. The total amount of road salt applied is approximately 350,000 tons per season.

Potentially Polluting about 140 billion gallons of water each year

Fortin Consulting

"Research by Eric Novotny, Andrew Sander, Omid

Mohseni and Heinz Stefan at SAFL, University of

Minnesota, and sponsored by LRRB/MNDOT".

• Chronic standard for Chlorides:

230 mg/l

= 1 teaspoon salt in 5 gallons water

Comparison of lake chloride concentrations in 39 TCMA

lakes and rock salt purchases by the state of Minnesota

"Research by Eric Novotny, Andrew Sander, Omid Mohseni and Heinz

Stefan at SAFL, University of Minnesota, and sponsored by LRRB/MNDOT".

Chloride concentrations in our lakes are on the rise

p-p2s7-54a

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National: Exceedances of EPA Water Quality Criteria for Cl

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%Chronic Water Quality Criteria (230 mg/L)

Nov-Apr

May-Oct

Northern Sites Southern Sites

6739/5266 1383/995

# of Sites 12 6 21 6 29 15 7 7 11 12 17 14 5 19 22 6 3 162 50

Shingle Creek 1st in MN listed for chlorides.

71% reduction required to drop below 230 mg/l.

Chloride impairments in 2010 draft list:Miller Creek - Lake superior Basin

Bass Creek - Upper Miss. Basin

Bassett Creek

Battle Creek

Crow River, South Fork

Jewitts Creek

Minnehaha Creek

Shingle Creek

Unnamed creek

Bevens Creek - MN River Basin

Nine mile Creek

Raven Stream

Raven Stream, East Branch

Redwood River

Sand Creek

Joe River – Red River Basin

1 ton of rock salt ($50) causes greater than $1,450 in corrosion damage to bridges, vehicles, and environment (TRB Report)

Ali Akbar Sohanghpurwala- Road Salt Symposium 2008 (photo and fact)

Salt is a persistent pollutant. All that we

have applied is in the water somewhere

What can we do about chlorides?

• Reverse osmosis

• Evaporation

• Source control

Are we ready to do this for our lakes, rivers and groundwater?

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Time to take action!

• Will we regulate salt?

• Will we educate the industry?

Since 2005 we have been working with Industry

• Road Salt Symposium

• Winter Maintenance Certification Training

Winter parking lot/sidewalk maintenanceTraining Program

MPCA “P2” grant $50,000

To develop first voluntary certification training class and test it

MINNESOTA POLLUTION CONTROL AGENCY

Snow & Ice ControlSnow & Ice Control

Best PracticesBest Practices

YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND ACTIONS WILL HELP YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND ACTIONS WILL HELP YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND ACTIONS WILL HELP

PROTECTPROTECTPROTECT MINNESOTA LAKES AND STREAMSMINNESOTA LAKES AND STREAMSMINNESOTA LAKES AND STREAMS

Minnesota

Pollution

Control

Agency

This is to Certify that

Roman Rowan

Snow King Inc.

has passed the certification examination

and has volunteered to apply snow and

ice control best management practices

for parking lots & sidewalks.

___________________

Date: _____________

319 funds since 2006

to provide subsidizedvoluntary

certification training

www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/roadsalt.html

Many partners collaborating on this program!

Many Partners• Watershed Management Organizations

• Cities

• MnDOT

• University of Minnesota

– CTAP/LTAP

– NRRI Duluth

• Hennepin County

• Private companies: Envirotech, Aveda

• Duluth area: RSPT- 21 organizations

• Freshwater Society

• MPCA/EPA

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Instructors vary but always…

• 1 Environmental professional

• 1 Winter Maintenance professional

Agenda (½ day class)

• Prepare

• Take Action

• Evaluate

• Rates

• Resources

• Optional Certification Test

Agenda

• Positive Attitude ☺

• BMPs

• Save $

• Environmental impacts

• Reduce salt use

• NO decrease in public safety

Training contents Introducing the most powerful group of professionals

There are very few people that have more influence over the earths surface than you do!

Proper storage of salt, sand and snowCalibration of equipment

Seems to be the difference

between excellent

companies & the others

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Know the Lowest practical melting temperature for each material

Chemical Lowest Practical

Melting Temp.

Eutectic Temp. Optimal

Concentration

Sodium Chloride 15º F -6º F 23%

Magnesium

Chloride-10º F -28º F 27 to 30%

CaCl2 (Calcium

Chloride)-20º F -60º F 30%

CMA (Calcium

Magnesium

Acetate)

20º F -18º F 32%

KAc (Potassium

Acetate)-15º F -76º F 50%

Blends Talk to supplier Talk to supplier Talk to supplier

Winter

Sand/Abrasives

Never melts --

traction only

Never melts --

traction only

Must know Pavement Temp

Can buy them at the auto part stores

Sodium Chloride – Rock Salt

Pavement Temperature º F

One Pound of Salt (NaCl) Melts

Melt Times

30

25

20

15

46.3 lbs of ice

14.4 lbs of ice

8.6 lbs of ice

6.3 lbs of ice

5 min.

10 min.

20 min.

1 hour

10

5

0

-6

4.9 lbs of ice

4.1 lbs of ice

3.7 lbs of ice

3.2 lbs of ice

Dry salt is ineffective and will blow away before it melts

anything

What should the application rate be?

500 300

Our eyes cannot tell us what we need to know

Like anti-freeze…too little or too much salt will not work as good as the right

amount of salt

This table is based on the recommended application rates for Minnesota roads. Use with caution and adjust as needed.

Deicing Application Rate Guidelines

for Parking Lots and Sidewalks

Pavement Temp. (ºF)

and Trend (↑↓)

Weather

Condition

Maintenance

Actions

Application Rate in Lbs/per 1000 square foot area

Salt

Prewetted/Pretreated With Salt

Brine

Salt Prewetted/ Pretreated With

Other Blends

Dry Salt Winter Sand

(abrasives)

>30° ↑Snow Plow, treat

intersections only .75 0.5 0.75not recommended

Frz. Rain Apply chemical

1.25 1.0 1.5not recommended

30° ↓Snow Plow & apply

chemical 1.25 1.0 1.5not recommended

Frz. Rain Apply chemical

1.5 1.25 1.75not recommended

25 - 30º ↑Snow Plow & apply

chemical 1.25 1.0 1.5not recommended

Frz. Rain Apply chemical

1.5 1.25 1.75not recommended

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Anti-icing is proactive

Involves applying a liquid deicer before the storm

Deicing: Use wet salt for more effective performance. Can use 30% less

Potential Cost Savings

Hypothetical Example:

Material Cost/ton Amt.

needed

Total cost

Dry salt $50 10 tons $500

Wet salt $60 6.7 tons $402

Clean up spills

MPCA web site (Resources)

Those Certified are

listed on MPCA’s web

page

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Projected Results

In Class survey of Best Practices

averaged from most recent 14 training classes

• BMPs already followed 31%

• New BMPs that will be tried 45%

– (will, might, won’t)

• Total BMPs adopted 76%

Projected Results

In Class Rate Reduction Exerciseaveraged from most recent 14 training classes

Average potential reduction in salt application rates 62%

Actual Results

Over 800 people certified in first 2 yearsNow over 3,000 certified

Nearly 100% of those surveyed would recommend the class to others

“Real world examples by people using these methods, brings integrity to the presentation”

“Many new concepts introduced. Good science and background on impacts to the environment”

A foreman in Property Services, Public Works, for the City of Minneapolis,

….was very impressed with it. He said he was very surprised to learn so much about a subject that he thought he knew...

He felt that all the bridge workers, equipment workers and street workers who work for the City of Minneapolis should take the workshop because they, too, could learn a lot, as he did, and they

could prevent a lot of environmental damage…

Since this letter* over 200 City of Mpls. workers have been trained

*Email to FCI from workshop host

Comments from participantsComments from participantsComments from participantsComments from participants

Scott County Example

• “Prior to calibration, accounting for usage and training our operators we used 9,500 tons per year of salt. We have not exceeded 7,500 tons since we trained our operators in sensible salting and calibrated our sanders. “

Rock salt: 617 tons (68%)

MgCl2: 80 tons (65%)

Photo taken by Bobak Ha’Eri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

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MATERIAL #1 - ROCK SALT1997 to 2005 9 year avg: 775 tons of salt

2006 to 2008 avg : 462 tons of saltNet avg. Reduction: 313 tons

% Reduction: 41%

MATERIAL #2 - ICE MELT (Magnesium Chloride - MgCl2)1997 to 2005 avg: 131 tons 2006 to 2008 avg: 64 tons

Net avg Reduction: 67 tons% Reduction: 51%

MATERIAL #3 - SAND1997 to 2005 avg 1965 tons 1997 to 2005 avg 18 tons Net Reduction: 1947 tons

% Reduction: 99%

Actual Results

• As for the state budget…The salt savings at the U of M alone in one year ($55,000) was equivalent to the MPCA grant to develop training.

Ridgedale Mall

• 80 acre site

• Salt use

– 10 to 12 tons/event prior to training

– 4 to 6 tons/event after training

• Both management company and contractor attended

Photo source: Hennepin County

If MN had a 10% reduction in salt (Metro area)

• Estimate $1.75 million dollars savings

• Estimate 14 Billion gallons of water not polluted

Based on keeping salt out of water – Chloride concentration below chronic criterion of 230 mg/l (~ 1 tsp/ 5 gal bucket)

Other States are interested

• Conducted classes in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa

Next Steps…• Sustainable funding to work with MN maintenance industry long term

• Homeowner de-icer education

• Turn MN program into a national program

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Turfgrass Maintenancewith reduced environmental Impacts

NEW…. Voluntary Certification Course New Video - Small site maintenance with reduced impacts

Funded by MWMO and U of MN, soon on MPCA website

There is a time to let things happen, and a time to make things happen. Anonymous

You can make things

happen!