Q&A
Environmental considerations for road salt application
0:21:49
ยท
71 sec
Acting Commissioner Lojan addresses questions about environmental impact studies of road salt and considerations for applying salt near sensitive areas.
- DSNY has not conducted or considered environmental impact studies on road salt use
- The department has only looked into alternative deicing materials, which were found to be cost-prohibitive
- For sensitive areas like parks and waterways:
- DSNY does not apply salt inside parks; the Parks Department handles those areas
- Salt spreaders have adjustable spreading widths to control distribution
- On highways, spreaders use a wider distribution pattern
- On narrower roads, the spread is adjusted to keep salt on the road surface
- These adjustments aim to minimize salt spread beyond the intended road areas
Shaun Abreu
0:21:49
Okay.
0:21:51
Has DSNY or another agency considered studying the impact of roads on the environment or city infrastructure?
Javier Lojan
0:21:59
No.
0:21:59
The the only thing we've, like I said, we we've kinda looked at is using that alternative that DOT uses.
0:22:04
But, you know, again, it's just, from a budget perspective and effectiveness, it just seems something that we really wouldn't be, in line with our operation.
Shaun Abreu
0:22:14
Are any considerations made regarding road salt applied near potentially sensitive areas, such as landscape areas and parks or near smaller waterways that may be
Javier Lojan
0:22:23
negatively impacted by increased salinity?
0:22:26
So we don't go inside parks.
0:22:28
Parks department, services the areas inside the parks.
0:22:33
Any areas near waterways so when we have salt spreading operations, there's different spreading width that we adjust for.
0:22:42
So if you see a salt spreader on a highway, you'll see that the salt spreader is a little bit wider than, you know, a one lane road.
0:22:50
So we generally the way the the the widths are set up is that we try to keep the road sold on the road itself and not go past it.
0:22:57
So it really wouldn't be impacting some of those areas.