New Hope Urges People to “Salt Smart”
Over salting driveways and sidewalks is a common problem according to the city of New Hope.
City staff are promoting the Salt Smart program designed to educate residents and businesses to use less salt.
Megan Hedstrom with the New Hope Public Works said if you see clumps of salt sitting in driveways, there’s probably too much.
She added that melting snow and ice can carry salt into storm drains that flow into bodies of water.
“One teaspoon of salt permanently can contaminate five gallons of water. So, it takes a very small amount of salt to go a very long way. Once there’s salt in a water body, it’s nearly impossible to get that out without a very expensive process to treat the water on the tail end,” explained Hedstrom.
Tips to reduce salt use include sweep and reuse excess salt, shovel early and often, and salt sparingly.
