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A Fiscally-Responsible Way to go GREEN
The ‘Green Streets Challenge’ is a campaign to challenge cities and
municipalities to reduce their annual usage of road salt by adopting greener ice
melting and traction alternatives.
In essence, municipalities are challenged to adopt a Green Streets policy and
utilize cost-effective eco-alternatives in conjunction with, or in replacement of,
controversial ice melters like road salt in sensitive areas like parks and trails,
watersheds, and residential side streets.
Find out today how your city can prevent the damages caused by road salt
and improve the quality of life for its citizens by going green with EcoTraction.
If you represent a city or municipality applying for a complimentary 1-ton bulk tote of EcoTraction, please follow these 2 steps:
1. Click here to download the short application form
2. Submit the completed form to greenstreets(at)ecotraction.com
We look forward to learning more about your traction needs after we receive your application.
The EcoTraction Team
1-888-293-3406
Scientific Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
September 12, 2005 - The following is an abstract of
"Increased salinization of fresh water in the northeastern United States"
"Chloride concentrations are increasing at a rate that threatens the availability
of fresh water in the northeastern United States. Increases in roadways and
deicer use are now salinizing fresh waters, degrading habitat for aquatic
organisms, and impacting large supplies of drinking water for humans
throughout the region. We observed chloride concentrations of up to 25% of
the concentration of seawater in streams of Maryland, New York, and New
Hampshire during winters, and chloride concentrations remaining up to 100
times greater than unimpacted forest streams during summers. Mean annual
chloride concentration increased as a function of impervious surface and
exceeded tolerance for freshwater life in suburban and urban watersheds. Our
analysis shows that if salinity were to continue to increase at its present rate
due to changes in impervious surface coverage and current management
practices, many surface waters in the northeastern United States would not
be potable for human consumption and would become toxic to freshwater life
within the next century."
October 3, 2005 - The following was excerpted from
"From icy roads to salty streams"
"The most difficult aspect of road salt use is knowing what to do about it."
"In summary, no one is suggesting that society should instantly ban rock salt
use. Nonetheless, the results of Kaushal et al. (3) do suggest that there are
real, long-term consequences to its use, particularly for freshwater systems
and soils. Understanding which environments are more likely to transfer salt
from roads, streams, and groundwater could help managers identify sensitive
species and highway segments that need alternative methods of deicing. More
generally, a prudent step would be to adopt a “less is more” policy, reducing
the amounts of salt applied and considering alternatives where economically
feasible. As is so often the case today, society is left to balance a discrete,
positive benefit (safer roads) with more dilute environmental costs that build
over decades and take decades to recover (18).
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