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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Saltless in Seattle

Seattle and in general the Pacific Northwest has been deluged this year with snow. The enviro wizards in Sea-town managed to dump tons of sand all over the streets to create traction for hapless motorists, a questionable tactic motivated largely by the desire to avoid using salt. Too bad sand is worse for the environment than salt (but, doesn't it seem that salt should be, well, worse than sand?). The experts have proclaimed that salt "degrades marine life", while not offering details. In the meantime, the six thousand tons of sand dumped over Seattle roadways are choking out the insect populations, negatively affecting local streams. Damn.

2 comments:

mijopo said...

Salt is hell on vehicles, though. If you ever visit Ontario, which uses salt extensively, check out the cars, which all start rusting mercilessly early.

Erik J. Larson said...

Actually I think I remember the rusting cars phenomenon from Spokane as well. It'd be better to sell sand on the roads by an appeal to saving the cars, not marine life.