Where Does The Salt Go?

Winter snow is piled at the side of the road.,into the ditches ,on lawns,on  boulevards.

Streets are salted and sanded to prevent freezing and mixed with snow, melts and runs .into storm sewers. In  Spring , on my street, it  fills  the ditches and runs off into  creeks and waterways.

Winters are not so cold as they were.   We don't use less  sand and salt. The grass at the edge of the boulevards no longer turns yellow and builds up with sand the way it used to.

Great mountains of accumulated snow on shopping centre parking lots, stay there until they melt in the Spring leaving behind piles of litter that are cleared away handily.

Here and there, the town  removes  snow from particular locations. We didn't always  do that. . I remember getting  a boot full quite often on Yonge Street ,when the town hall was in the middle of the East Block.

The  collected snow goes  to a gravel parking lot at the Lambert Wilson property. It sits there until it  melts into the ground.  Like everywhere else in the town.

Salt, whatever is left of it,  dissolves in the melt. It filters down through the  permeable layers of   the good earth in that particular location.  Eventually  some of it  may  find it's way into the creek that drains  the property.

Sand and  litter is easily collected.and transported if need be. .

Not a big deal.

Except, we have a plan to change that. In the capital construction budget, we have half a million  dollars to pave the parking lot with cement, create a runnel  feeding into a treatment  facility to remove "toxins"

The plan  is in  response  to a call from the Minister of Environment to reduce "toxins" from finding their way down to  the water table.

"Toxins" identified are oil and grit and sand and salt.  

We have never, I mean me, seen any evidence of oil on the grass from  winter snow melt. Salt no longer turns the edge of the boulevard  grass yellow. We  collect sand and re-use the stuff.

The only  toxin, if there is any , to merit the description is salt. Salt is soluble.It can't be trapped in  a treatment system.

Despite the  argument,unwilling to make the decision to remove the item from the budget,  like the repairs to the Aurora Family Leisure Centre. it was deferred by Council  at the time , to be more thoroughly discussed at a later date.

We did not get  to it at the all-day meeting  held at the later date.We spent half the day listening to consultants for the Draft Strategic Plan and  Space Needs for the 5 million dollar re-organisation of the town hall.

We did thoroughly discuss  proposed $ 600 thousand dollars expenditure for the Aurora Family Leisure Complex and  rejected most of it. But  minutes from the meeting did not reflect that action. They noted  the report was received.

It was not. .

It didn't much matter.

 The expenditure was  approved anyway through another route.. 

The CAO  explained " the later  meeting"  had been held to allow Council to have "input"

The explanation sat well with the Mayor.  No other Council  member expressed concern . Therefore, the discussion and conclusion by council not to undertake the expenditure didn't count.

The expenditures are being undertaken.

Yet another Financial  report was before council in our single August meeting agenda.

A  list of capital construction projects and status is provided and staff approval recommended.

The snow storage site selection /construction is listed at  $500,000.

 $123,911. has been spent for the design in progress.That was done in a previous year.

The report  recommends  approval for the project to continue.  .

I called the report for discussion. My recollection of budget  indicates several items of capital construction  deferred for in- depth discussion prior to approval.

If you are still reading this post, I commend you for  perseverance.

At the August meeting,  the  usual complement of delegates, two appearing for the third time, had their turn at the mike to talk about their special interests and they in turn, were debated by Council with variable results,

Half  the designated time to deal with  town business was  expended.

Insufficient  time was left  to deal with  items of town business. They were deferred to  September.  The agenda will no doubt once again accommodate another flurry of  special interest delegates as well as   new items of business  requiring council attention. 

The nub of this post, in case it has been lost is. we are spending half a million dollars on a treatment system to remove "toxins" from a fraction of  snow that melts, couldn't be stored if we wanted to,  mixed with the minimum of salt we spread, that can't be removed because it  dissolves. 

Salt is a natural substance taken from the earth in the first place which we use of necessity, to make our environment habitable. 











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We have storm water ponds that filter" toxins" into the sediment