Why has Deschutes County started using chemicals in their snow and ice control program?
There are several factors that have influenced our decision to add chemicals to our tool bag for ice control. Environmental: During the early 1990s several environmental concerns about traditional sanding methods were being raised. The most dominant were air quality and water quality. The National Marine Fisheries Services ask that agencies quit allowing sanding materials to get into streams and rivers. (This is the same agency that turned the water off in the Klamath Basin and talks about removing dams to benefit fish runs.) The Bend clean air committee asked that agencies find a way to reduce the amount of dust in the air during the winter months. Recent efforts led by ODOT to establish new gravel mining sites indicate it will become increasingly more difficult to obtain sanding materials. Economics: While the cinders that we and other agencies use are the least costly of any material in the state, the cost of spreading and retrieving them is high. Over the past 5years it has cost th
