Greenspace: Don’t grab the first ice melter
Sodium causes high blood pressure in humans but the opposite in plants. It blocks the uptake of water in a plant’s capillaries. Excessive sodium dehydrates plants. Sodium poisoning is indicated by yellow leaves that soon wither and die.
Winter’s icy roads, drives and walks require melting. If you use common sodium chloride, you risk plant harm in your yard and beyond.
All that salty water finds its way into the storm sewer. This pollutes streams and lagoons in our parks, then flows into the water table.
Grass along my drive and in my devil strip has a hard time. Blame goes to the salt. You don’t even have to buy it. Your vehicle tracks it right up the drive.
Sodium rots steel and pits our concrete. If you have precast concrete steps, they are especially vulnerable.
Salt dripping off your car in your garage causes a salty humidity that can rust your tools and lawn machines.
We can spend a lot of money fixing salt’s many problems. We can only guess why we use something this wrong.
It’s not even that great a melter. It does a fair job above 20 degrees but can be useless below that.
Look for better choices, although they usually are more expensive than common road salt. Don’t just grab the first bag of melter you see. Farmers have a neat trick. Their melter of choice is pelletized fertilizer containing urea. It works down to 20 degrees.
Makers are converting fertilizer to melter, basically just repackaging it. They advertise it as effective against ice. The fertilizing effect is a bonus. Melters marked environmentally safe usually contain part fertilizer.
Note that almost all melters can be harmful to pets. The chemical penetrates the pads of their feet. It’s a good idea to wash or wipe it off when pets come inside.
If you have a choice, calcium magnesium seems the most benign chemical.
Check the ingredients to avoid salt:
- Urea: Effective down to 20 degrees, contained in fertilizer, not the fastest melter but generally safe with few environmental problems.
- Calcium magnesium acetate: Effective to 15 degrees, one of the safest melters overall but not when used as a coating for rock salt.
- Ammonium sulfate: Effective to 20 degrees, damages concrete.
- Calcium chloride: Effective to minus-20, melts faster and safer than sodium chloride but the runoff water will freeze at 0 degrees.
Magnesium chloride: To 5 degrees, faster than sodium chloride but attracts moisture.
Potassium chloride: To 20 degrees, similar to sodium chloride but damages concrete.
Jim Hillibish writes for The Repository in Canton, Ohio. Contact him at email@example.com.