Less road salt, more accidents and injuries

[Clipper]

wibx950.com/smullens-road-salt-reduction-bills-signed-into-law-by-cuomo/

Reducing road salt use is a wonderful idea, but NY state IS in right in the path of some of the nastiest snowfall events in the Northeast, and is no stranger to mixed precipitation, sleet, and freezing rain.

I am all for the environmental protection of the pristine Adirondack mountains but people who live in the Adirondacks or visit for the great winter activities that are available need to be able to safely navigate the roads. I am sure that there are ways to reduce through the use of other chemical mixtures, or by using more sand mixed with less salt. I remember when I was younger roads outside of the city were sanded more than they are now. It made for a lot of spring cleanup but sand had little environmental impact. In the city they can't use too much sand or they will pay for it with clogged storm drains and the cost of having to scrape it up and haul it away in dump trucks from every street in the city.

Many years ago I worked part time for Lynn Scott trucking in Blossvale. We hauled salt from the Cayuga Salt mine in Lansing NY. His full time drivers hauled salt around the clock for their entire work week and those of us that worked part time could put in 30 or so hours just on a weekend. The environmental impact of all that salt was something that I thought of every time I backed into one of those huge salt storage domes to dump. They kept those domes filled to the roof and to the doorway. I used to think gee, all that salt is going to ultimately end up being dissolved on the highways and the runoff will be going into the surrounding ground. A person couldn't help but wonder what impact all that salt would have on groundwater and on plant life along the highways. I thought about the impact, but also thought about the alternatives. I certainly would not have wanted to be driving a tractor trailer, loaded with 25 tons of salt, up and down hill on slippery roads either.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the passage of this law, how they will find a balance between the salt and other manners by which roads can be kept safe, as well as how Herr Cuomo expects to enforce the law. I certainly would not want to see the state fining towns and cities, imposing a huge burden to local budgets and to the wallets of taxpayers. It would result in the state taking the money out of local coffers and pouring it into Albany's pocket where it would probably end up being spent downstate somewhere.

[Deleted]

I wish they could also spray it on think on sidewalks. I love road salt the more the merrier.

[Clipper]

No need to "love road salt" PB there are many deicing compounds that utilize calcium chloride rather than sodium chloride. You have a much more in depth knowledge of chemistry than I but I am sure that you would agree that much less harm is imposed on the environment by the calcium vs sodium compounds.

Calcium chloride ice melting crystals should be used on city sidewalks and could be applied either in the dry form or as a brine. Better to see calcium going into the rivers than salt. Calcium as you know is good for the soil to a certain extent and doesn't kill vegetation unless applied directly and in significant quantity.

We don't get much ice or snow, but what we do get sometimes leaves our sidewalk slippery first thing in the morning. I use the calcium chloride melting crystals because they are easier on the dogs paws, and don't kill the grass. I bought a 10lb bag of ice melt about 5 yrs ago and still have quite a bit left. I keep it in a plastic bag with a twist tie, inside a plastic bucket with a lid. A few handfuls a season is all I have had to use.

[BHU]

I'm all for cutting back on the use of road salt because of the enviroment but those brine mixtures they're using now wreak havoc on vehicles. That stuff causes rust because it leaves a film which is almost impossible to remove without going at the underside with a pressure washer. The body on my truck has no rust but the underside is covered with it. And those undersoatings are a waste of money. All they do is cover over the rust so you can't see it as it does what is does. It's cosmetic because it looks nice but it's a waste of money.

[Clipper]

I don't have a problem here because they don't have to brine the roads very often and when they do I have a attachment for the pressure washer specially made to wash the bottom of your vehicle. If I am feeling lazy I just go to the brushless car wash and drive slowly over the underwash spray, lingering to let it give the bottom of the truck a good washing. I can see where it would cause a problem up there in NY where the roads almost always have brine on them to one extent or another.

[Deleted]

I heard beet juice works wonders as a replacement for road salt. I forgot when and where I read that but it must be on the Web. I always liked the way the thruway kept its road so clear of snow and ice. Generally the roads had a white appearence the them. I traveled a lot between Utica and Syracuse and Rochester while in schooling and also at a job placement.

Oh how I could remember Lake Ave in the winter and the seminary parking lots on Lake Ave in Rochester. It was not unusual to park your car in the afternoon during winter and not be able to find any cars by morning on many days. Oh the digging I had to do to get my poor Benny ( cars name! ) out from under it white sepulcher. I never had a problem with Benny starting up after being buried for a few days. I think I had a Mercury back then an old one at that. Only paid $1200 for it my brother in law got it at the car auction.

[Clipper]

Those old Mercury's were tanks and very dependable. Heavy enough to go through the snow and back then Ford made an engine that started fairly easily in all but the most frigid of weather. I had an old 63 Ford with a big 390 cu inch engine and a huge four barrel carb. I used to take the air cleaner off and give that carb a generous shot of ether and it always started right up.

in 1967 I took a cruise to Vietnam on a destroyer out of Long Beach California. My wife came back to NY and stayed with my parents while I was overseas. We had a little 66 Plymouth Valiant at the time. We loaded up what we had at the time in a U-haul trailer and headed for California. We got as far as Sallisaw Oklahoma and a tractor trailer loaded with huge bales of cotton, going in the opposite direction took a curve too fast and the cotton bales broke loose and came bouncing down the road. One landed on the roof and squashed the roof down almost to the dashboard, and one landed between the car and the trailer bringing us to screeching halt. We had Allstate insurance and so did the trucking company. They were local to the area and had the agent that we ended up working with. They chose to fix the car rather than total it. When it was fixed they would have a drive-away service bring it to us in California. I was a poor E-3 seaman in the navy at the time and had very little money. We ended up buying a huge old tank of a Mercury Turnpike Cruiser to get us back to California. We loaded what was left undamaged of our belongings in the trunk and back seat and hit the road. I couldn't get an extension on my leave so we had to be back in California about 3 days later. It didn't take long to find that the oil light would come on about every 100 miles or so and it left a blue cloud behind us. We had overloaded it so the crappy tires on it blew one at a time and we went through 5 or 6 used tires to get to Long Beach. The last tire change was in the middle of the night in Bakersfield California. I ended up in a junk yard with a flash light taking a wheel and tire off another old Mercury while a Doberman pincer growled at me every time I moved. I drove that old merc for a few more months until they returned our repaired car from Oklahoma. I bought a 2 gallon gas can and the base auto hobby shop used to give me drain oil that I would pour in that old beast with a mayonnaise jar. When we got our car back I drove that old junker to a junkyard outside San Pedro and sold it for $25. It was a luxury model in it's time with power antenna, power seats and lots of chrome. One thing that sticks out in my memory was that the radio had two antennas that stuck out horizontally from the top corners of body above the windshield instead of being located on the fender. Yep, another chapter in my somewhat adventurous life.

PB, you paid $1200 for your mercury. We paid $300 and sold it for $25 so that has to speak to the condition of that old junker we bought, and we drove it from Oklahoma to California, haha.

[Deleted]

Clipper what a vivid memory you have of everything. God Bless. All I know was that Mercury lasted me from 1974 to 1982. I got it in 74 and have no idea how old it was. My brother in law just said do nothing to the car when you come home in the summer he would take care of oil change etc. I have no idea how to change oil or do anything to a car but fill it with gas. I avoid anything under the hood! Poor thing died on my in the middle of summer in 82 on my way back from Syracuse in the evening. I think I was around Chittenango triple A drove me to a bar where I called my brother in law and he came cursing all the way with his flat bed to pick me up. I sat at the bar and drank 2 pitchers of Genny Crème Ale!!!!!!

[Clipper]

Ahh yes. Nothing like a frosty glass of good ale to sooth the nerves, haha. Is Genesee Cream Ale the same as the Genny 12 horse ale that I used to drink occasionally? I preferred Ballantyne but drank Genny in a pinch.

Yes PB. I am fortunate to have such a vivid memory of bygone days. Thankfully, other than my darker days of obsessive drinking before I went to rehab, and the time I spent in Vietnam, my life has left me with wonderful memories. As I age I find myself reminiscing often and enjoy recalling those good memories of childhood and my younger days.

CNY and the Adirondacks was a great place to grow up. I have always loved the outdoors and God has yet to make very many places that rival the diversity of outdoor activity and scenic beauty of NY State. One of my only regrets as I have aged has been the physical limitations and my inability to stand in a trout stream or wander the woods hunting. This time of year my mind carries me back to days of walking in the woods deer hunting or fall days standing in the West Canada creek or Black River fishing for trout. My favorite shotgun sat unused in my gun cabinet for almost 20 yrs before I could finally bring myself to trade it recently for a 9mm handgun. Guns used to be a source of target shooting and hunting fun. Now I have a 22 rifle for varmint shooting, and have acquired a handgun for personal protection. I never thought I would find myself wanting a hand gun for our personal security and safety. Meth heads with stolen handguns and home invasions are all too frequent in semi-rural areas like where we live. I am too old to be fighting with some drug crazed moron, or to allow myself or Kathy to be beaten up and robbed. The handgun is loaded and in a drawer here in my desk. It is within reach from my chair. At night it is in a drawer in my nightstand. I don't live in fear, but I live prepared for today's personal safety and security concerns.

Concealed carry is pretty common here in the redneck South. If you see someone with a fairly long shirt, untucked, the odds are fair that they may be carrying a weapon. Not long ago I was standing in line waiting to use the self checkout a the grocery store I was behind an elderly gentleman, probably in his eighties, just looking like someone's sweet grand daddy. As he reached into his back pocket for his wallet, his shirt was pulled up far enough to reveal the butt of a small semi automatic pistol in a holster tucked in the back of his pants. .

[BHU]

I once drove a '66 Plymouth Valient that I owned from Lake George to Utica with a busted water pump in mid summer. It was on a Sunday & nowhere to buy parts back then so I said the hell with it & went for it. I stopped once on the thwy half way home to let it cool off & made it home with that sucker still running. Next day I slapped in the pump & drove that beast into the ground for 6 months afterward. I ended up scrapping it at one of the junk yards on Barnes Ave when the tranny grenaded. That was 40 years ago.

[Clipper]

Dec 5, 2020 13:55:18 GMT -5 BHU said:

I once drove a '66 Plymouth Valient that I owned from Lake George to Utica with a busted water pump in mid summer. It was on a Sunday & nowhere to buy parts back then so I said the hell with it & went for it. I stopped once on the thwy half way home to let it cool off & made it home with that sucker still running. Next day I slapped in the pump & drove that beast into the ground for 6 months afterward. I ended up scrapping it at one of the junk yards on Barnes Ave when the tranny grenaded. That was 40 years ago.

That little 225 or 235 slant six was just about bullet proof. I had one in that Valiant, one in a 74 Dart, and one in an old AMC Gremlin I bought from a GI just to drive back and forth to work.

[BHU]

Speaking of bombs. I bought my first car at the age of 18. A '65 Chevy Belair that I paid the princely sum of $50.00 for from an old guy that lived down the road from us, who just wanted to get rid of it. I drove it for 3 years until in an ice storm a tree limb came down & took out the windshield. That thing was built like a tank, & rode like one but it was my first car. And to me it was the cat's ass. Lol

[clarencebunsen]

It always seems easy to remember our first car. Mine was later than most, I was broke in college and only lived a mile or so from campus so I walked. Then I was drafted and drove army vehicles for 2 years. When I got out I bought a '66 Ford Custom. It had one feature I never appreciated, a light which was intended to inform me that the engine was warmed up enough to provide heat. Imagine going out on a Minnesota winter morning with a temp of -20 and having a blue light on the dash saying "COLD".

[Clipper]

I would have never seen that light. I would have gotten in the car, started it and went back in t he house until the car was warm enough that the light would have long since gone off.

[Clipper]

Dec 5, 2020 20:38:40 GMT -5 BHU said:

Speaking of bombs. I bought my first car at the age of 18. A '65 Chevy Belair that I paid the princely sum of $50.00 for from an old guy that lived down the road from us, who just wanted to get rid of it. I drove it for 3 years until in an ice storm a tree limb came down & took out the windshield. That thing was built like a tank, & rode like one but it was my first car. And to me it was the cat's ass. Lol

I had 65 Chevy station wagon in the early 70's. Yes, it was a tank. 3 on the tree transmission, and a small block V8, I don't remember but it was possibly a 283. That thing I think weighed in excess of 3500 lbs. With a hundred pounds of sand in the rear and good studded snow tires it would push snow with the front bumper. I drove through snow so deep and drifted once on the Walker Road that the engine compartment packed full of snow and threw the fan belt off but it never got stuck.

Driving over the hills from Newport to Utica to work was always a winter adventure and challenge but with that old tank if I could get out of the Utica area with their poor snow removal with those old belly plows, I could get over the hills to Newport and Poland.