Any Parrot Head worth his or her salt knows our headline as a reply to Jimmy Buffet’s “looking for my lost shaker of salt” in his song “Margaritaville.”
Well, the salt is on our roads and highways. Salt has been the go-to method of de-icing our driving surfaces in Tennessee as long as I can remember. I became acutely aware of the great harm it does to concrete when, for eight years I operated a concrete repair business. I did concrete lifting or what is referred to as slab jacking. Many times, when I assessed customers’ issues, the concrete had surface damage. The first thing I asked was “have you put salt on it?” Most times they had. I then had to tell them there was really nothing that could be done to repair the damage.
Now, I’m not going to throw out a bunch of conjecture about the salt issue. I have been observing for years what alternatives there might be to salt. I know that a few years ago Tennessee tried beet juice but deemed it too expensive. My question is whether or not the short-term cost was measured against the long-term cost of replacing roadways and bridges.
I have reached out to several organizations and individuals to investigate the issue. I don’t want to follow the current tack of throwing out information without having exhaustive research to back it up.
Not only do I believe that salt does damage to our roadways, but it damages vehicles, the environment, our streams and waterways and the fish and animals that inhabit our state. I was told that during the state’s last ice event, TDOT spread 20,000 tons of salt on our highways. That’s a lot of “damn” salt. Where does it go to? I remember historical stories about invading armies devastating captured lands by salting the land to make the area uninhabitable.
There are alternatives, or at least modifications. Lots of work must go into determining if there are viable alternatives that are both environmentally and fiscally advantageous. There are some states where salt is either not used or used in lower concentrations.
If anyone has input or useful information, please contact the Tennessee Sierra Club. I have reached out to them, and they are on board to look at the issue.
Dan Arp is retired and lives in Heiskell.