This is not snow or slush on the road, on the shoulder or in the center, it is all salt. Clouds of it in the air behind us. Not even that brine solution, just plain old rock salt being spread. No wonder the old cars disintegrated in a few years.
That's what it looked like here south of Boston until we got a lot of rain last week. There's still some remnants of it but it's mostly gone. It was terrible! Of course, it's only almost mid February, so I'm sure we can count on a lot more....
I don't remember the salt being as fine and dusty as it is now, is this something new? I too am seeing salt dust clouds behind my car and figure it can not be good for the longevity of lots of things including our cars.
Good old NY State, just outside of Buffalo... We have an abundance of salt mines around here so there is no shortage of material The GS will not see the light of day for a minimum of 2 more months, probably longer
I'm on long island NY the local highway dept just switched over to all salt this year WTF last week the roads were white for 4 days everything will be junk.
What does all that salt do to the water supply? Got to leach into the soil. What does the salt do to the PH levels of the soil?
They have to make sure they use it all up otherwise they wont get more next year. So if they save money and have a money surplus at the end of the year, there will be less money allotted to them next year. Can you wrap your head around that?
Yup, now that cars have antilock brakes, traction control, skid control and all wheel drive, we need more salt. Gotta make sure there's not a speck of snow on the roads.
I hear a few guys say that, on clear winter days, they take their classic cars out for a cruise. What they don't think about is all the salt still on the roads. It may be not as bad as Mike's picture, but if any salt dust is kicked up on the car, then all its going to take is a bit of moisture to possibly start rust. I hate waiting, but we don't take our cars out in the spring until after a heavy gully washing rain.
Big problem here in Maryland...wells are being contaminated. Probably takes years but it is reaching water table. People are having to drill deeper wells.....
I'm definitely going to wait until there's consecutive days of torrential downpours. I got antsy last year and did like you mentioned. Not this year, though. The road treatments down here are insane.
So far we've been lucky with the snow down here on "Lawn Guyland". They've been brining the roads and throwing down the sand/ salt mix. Some of the roads down here look like sand dunes from all the stuff they put down. They really do go overboard
Remember public works (Newton Mass) throwing down huge amounts of sand and rock salt in the seventies, on the streets, and at the elementary and middle schools that attended. Moved out and eventually to southwest twenty five years ago this year. Don't miss it one bit.
Homeowners are having to replace plumbing and can't drink the water. Ridiculous.... I guess have to put a bunch down so no lawsuits..... Near where I used to live on TV they showed a particular downhill corner that they over-treated.....people skid on the salt itself..... I've seen SUVs off the road there in dry (salted) conditions
My guess is that it gets ground up by traffic. So bad sometimes you can smell it despite the cabin air filter so I usually hit the re-circulation switch. Can't be healthy breathing that crap.
