Evanston opts for environmentally-friendly way to keep streets safe during snowfall
EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS) – Another community preparing for at least 4 inches of snow is Evanston where crews are using something environmentally friendly to treat the roads.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot went to the Evanston Public Works Agency's salt dome where there's about 3,500 tons of salt.
The salt is mixed with brine, and made right in Evanston, with the goal of keeping everyone on the roads safe and protecting the environment, at the same time.
In the salt tank at the Public Works Agency, fresh water mixes with the salt to create between 4,000 and 6,000 gallons of brine, which is used to pretreat the roads in Evanston.
"It gets to a certain salinity which is somewhere between 22.5 and 23.3% salt to water," said Daniel "Chizel" Kwiecinski, a heavy equipment operator in Evanston.
Le Mignot: "Tell me why it has to be so precise."
Kwiecinski: "If you have too much salt, the water won't do anything to the snow."
The brine is pumped through hoses that can be attached to salt trucks, to fill canisters with brine.
"Before the salt goes onto the street, we prewet it," said Donald Cornelius, the streets supervisor for Evanston's Public Works Agency. "It actually activates the salt in preparation, because salt doesn't do anything dry."
Beet Heet and Bio Melt-64 are added. The environmentally-friendly products help when the temperatures reach 15 degrees. That's when salt loses its effectiveness on the roads. The mixture is combined with salt to be spread on the streets.
A gallon of brine costs 12 cents to make. One ton of salt costs about $80.
"There's definitely a lot of benefits to brine," said Edgar Cano, the director of the Evanston Public Works Agency. "It's environmentally friendly. It helps reduce the overall bulk rock salt chloride use and it does save a lot of money as well."
The director said Evanston has been looked at as a pioneer in the use of brine and chloride reduction, evening supplying it to the local school districts, including Northwestern University.
Other communities, like Skokie and Wilmette have also talked with Evanston about its program.