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Like
Magic:
Chemical enhancement makes
rock salt more effect
Author: Aidan Levy
Journal Inquirer
Published January 2005 New
England highway workers have added a new trick
to their repertoire: Magic Salt, a tonic for the
times. And they’re not the only magicians
in the business.
Freezing rain, snow, sleet –
a familiar refrain for another grueling Connecticut
winter – are rarely coupled with the earthy
smell of molasses. This season, however, a substance
that resembles the syrupy, southern sluice is
cropping up on treacherous streets and parking
lots throughout New England as those responsible
for snow and ice removal increasingly turn to
Magic Salt, a juiced-up, purportedly more effective
variation of conventional rock salt.
Currently, no Connecticut towns
have made the switch, but Loomis Chaffee School
in Windsor has used Magic Salt for the past three
years.
“I love it. It gives you some
residue that buys you time in the middle of a
snowstorm and it doesn’t let the ice adhere
to the pavement after it’s applied,”
says Steve Bianchi, grounds superintendent for
the school. “It has a tendency to smell
like molasses, but it doesn’t last long.”
A chemist discovered the product
in the dead of winter behind a Hungarian vodka
distillery, where a pond laced with the discarded,
gritty mash – an agricultural byproduct
of the distillation process that oozed from the
building’s pipes – miraculously never
froze.
The chemist manipulated the sugary
swill, blending it with magnesium chloride, another
de-icer, and converted it into a potent brown
syrup that could be applied to rock salt to better
prevent dangerous road conditions. Later, the
chemist found that Magic Salt is not limited to
vodka. The range of possible alcoholic beverages
that can be used is infinite.
In 1997, Sears Ecological Applications
Co. of Rome, N.Y., bought the patent and licensed
it to Innovative Municipal Products Inc., also
based in Rome, the only current U.S. manufacturer.
“By being able to melt the
ice faster, you can cut down on your operating
expense with equipment and manpower,” says
Robert St. Jacques, president of Four Seasons
Landscaping and operations manager of St. Jacques
Family Enterprises, based in Windsor. St. Jacques
is one of five Connecticut distributors of the
product. “You get two to three times the
melt by using about half the salt product.”
In addition, Magic Salt has fewer
environmental hazards. In fact, it has none of
the harmful effects caused when conventional rock
salt spreads onto roadside vegetation areas or
ponds. Also, unlike conventional rock salt, Magic
Salt does not corrode concrete and steel.
“The big benefit is increasing
service levels and reducing the amount of chloride
emissions,” says Tim Dyck, vice president
of sales and marketing for Innovative Municipal.
Dyck points to Canada, one of the world’s
leaders in this technology, where the government
controls the use of rock salt in municipalities.
Many towns have also curbed sand and grit use,
says Dyck, due to severe environmental repercussions
that surpass those caused by rock salt, in addition
to using Magic Salt.
“It’s very friendly
as far as the environment goes,” says Scott
C. Lappen, Windsor Locks director of Public Works.
“I’ve actually seen people stick their
finger in the stuff and eat it.”
Some proponents of Magic Salt claim
that it is effective down to negative 30 degrees,
compared to conventional rock salt, which is useless
if the temperature dips below 18 degrees. Lappen
takes these claims with a grain of salt, however.
“What their Web site says and what’s
actually practical differs,” says Lappen.
“That’s what we’ve seen in the
field anyway.”
Yet Lappen’s doubts have not
deterred him from heavily considering establishing
a salt route in Windsor Locks, on account of a
10 percent price hike in road salt this year and
a 67 percent hike in the price of sand.
The town has a budget of approximately
$47,000 for snow and ice removal materials –
$11,000 more than last year – and a similar
cost for labor. With the continuing inflation
in the sand and salt markets, however, Lappen
says using Magic Salt could be a cost-effective
move. Even though the product is more expensive,
Lappen projects that the change will lower sand
usage and defray the cost of cleanup in the spring.
New York and the Pacific Northwest
were quick to switch to Magic Salt, but the product
is not so commonplace in New England.
Gradually, towns in New Hampshire
and Vermont have begun to use it, with Massachusetts
implementing an aggressive Magic Salt campaign
in 25 towns and on the Mass Turnpike.
Pepperrell, Mass., began supplementing
conventional rock salt and sand with Magic Salt
five years ago. “If cost was no object,
I guarantee we would use it on every foot of roadway,
but we have to be judicious in its use,”
says Bob Lee, director of Public Works. As far
as working down to negative 30 degrees, Lee can’t
verify that claim. “When it gets really,
really cold, it’s usually dry. How many
times does it snow when it’s 30 below zero?”
Bean Town, however, is reluctant
to prescribe its dose of southern seasoning.
“There’s a certain degree
of skepticism,” says Joseph Casazza, commissioner
of Public Works for Boston. “Our experience
with a similar product a couple years ago had
adverse qualities.”.
Content © 2005 The Journal
Inquirer. |
