Dear Dot,
Can I put salt on my sidewalk or paths to get rid of ice? If not, why not? What alternatives work best?
–Mark
Dear Mark,
Two decades ago, the house Mr. Dot and I bought to raise our Baby Dots came with a concrete swimming pool. We’d never had a pool and, though we hadn’t sought one, we and the three Baby Dots were excited.
We began by installing a salt-water system to reduce the chemicals required to keep the water swimmable. Over the next few years, however, the concrete bottom of our pool was getting rough enough that the soles of the Baby Dots’ feet became raw. Of course, we should have known that salt corrodes but some of us discover these things the hard way, such as when we use salt to de-ice our walkways, sideways, and roads. What’s more, road salt gets washed into wells, wastewater systems, and our soil, rivers, lakes, and ponds. A recent New York Times story tells us that road salt “has killed or endangered wildlife in freshwater ecosystems, with high chloride levels toxic to fish, bugs, and amphibians, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.”
Salt is also tough on the paws of our pets and other wildlife, leading to chapping, cracking, dryness, even burning.
So it’s a big, salty “no!” to road salt.
It’s a no that many towns and cities have already heard loud and clear. Some are turning to brine (yep, the stuff we soak things like pickles in), including the town of Tisbury, Massachusetts, which mixes brine with sand. Rhode Island also uses a brine solution. (want proof that it works? Watch this!) Unfortunately, salt is still the default de-icer in most of the country, consuming 43 percent of all the salt in the US. In Canada, five million tonnes of the stuff is spread on wintry roads. Why? Cost. Salt is cheap. But that could be changing. According to Time magazine, “the rising cost of salt and growing awareness of environmental threats has convinced many cities to use brine over salt where possible, including New York, Des Moines, and Philadelphia.” In Canada, Kingston, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Ontario, has switched to brine, with Missisauga, Ontario and cities in B.C. and Calgary experimenting with it.
But what can you do? Well, you can take your cue from the brine users and get (or make) some pet-friendly sugar beet brine. Google offers up loads of recipes, along with a de-icing vinegar mixture.
Some people swear by plain old sand or kitty litter. But whatever you choose, save the salt for cooking!
Sure-footedly,
Dot
