On January 21, Thomas L. Viola was charged with the theft of some 135 tons of road salt in Aurora, Illinois. Viola had (intentionally) sold the road salt, which did not belong to him, on October 1 at the bargain price of $9000 (US). He was caught and the salt was recovered / found in a warehouse. Now while the headline “Man Charged With Theft Of 135 Tons Of Road Salt” is certainly more eye-catching than the reality of selling goods that are not your own as thieving, we were struck more with the commodity worthy of such a heist. About 50% of industrialized salt production is used in cold-climate regions for de-icing. Along with that massive seasonally dependent harvest, is the need to store salt (or sand) in a distributed fashion and at a municipal level. Like little salt banks or mail drop-off boxes, salt facilities dot the highway landscape. These often conical containers are perfectly formed to the angle of repose of salt mounds. In a strange twist, the containers are protecting the salt from the weather, while the salt, once dispersed, protects us from the weather.
Toronto, for example, uses about 130,000 – 150,000 tonnes of salt annually with 200 salting trucks to address 130cm of annual snowfall. And Montreal spends about $135 million annually to address its 217cm snowfall. Industrial salt production is a massive enterprise of which less than 10% is for use in de-icing.
The US and China produce about 40% of total world salt production, which globally was about 250 million tons in 2006.
Following a heavy winter last year, many municipalities stocked up on road salt early this year. This drove prices up, and it has created the need for more innovative thinking in terms of ice-melting. One case in point is geomelt, which Chicago is considering. But other options have included garlic salt.
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COMMENTS / 6 COMMENTS
re:place Magazine added these pithy words on Jan 31 09 at 12:37 pm[...] Chi-town [The Oregonian] Environmental Issues Slide in Poll of Public’s Concerns [New York Times] Sea Dust, pt 1 [Infranet Lab] From pollution fight, seeds of change sprout [Chicago Tribune] Paved Paradise: [...]
wilful added these pithy words on Feb 01 09 at 9:23 pmwhere does the salt go? groundwater? Isn’t that a real risk of damaging the environment?
Anthony added these pithy words on Feb 09 09 at 11:06 amSmall quibble with the article: my local municipalities were not stocking up on salt early in the year, as we well knew that it was an exceptional, record-breaking year for snow last year.
Instead, depleted and exhausted stocks were being replaced, in expectation of a typical snow year, for the winter of 2008-2009.
R Tyler added these pithy words on Jan 10 10 at 11:11 amI was confused by these two statements: “About 50% of industrialized salt production is used in cold-climate regions for de-icing.” “Industrial salt production is a massive enterprise of which less than 10% is for use in de-icing.”
Is it ~50% or <10%?
mwhite added these pithy words on Jan 11 10 at 10:05 amR Tyler, this is confusing.
From our understanding 50% of salt in cold-climate regions is used for de-icing, whereas less than 10% globally is used for de-icing.
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