Where Does It Go?

I’ll start by saying that I haven’t lived in a city, or even a town, for more than 30 years. I’m therefore pretty ignorant when it comes to how things work in cities.

I get all my water from a spring, not a huge city water supply. When I turn on the faucet, I can hear the pump in my basement kick on to move that water, reminding me to be conservative in my use.

When I flush, everything goes into my septic system, and ultimately out into my leach bed. No city sewer systems out here in the sticks. That has an impact on what cleaning products I use and what I dump down my drain.

So maybe my reaction to a piece I heard on NPR a few weeks ago is completely wrong, based on my incorrect and incomplete information.

The discussion was around the challenge that many cities are facing with no places left to pile up the huge amounts of snow they received. Parking lots already have lots of their spaces taken up with snow mounds, empty lots are full of snow, and still the snow keeps falling. Some cities were seeking permission to dump the snow into their lakes and rivers.

Understandably, the DEC was not anxious to give the ok. Those snow mounds are full of road salt, dirt, and garbage. Not a good idea to put it in the water. That made sense to me.

And then I thought about it. Out here in the sticks, we still have plenty of places to put snow. Not necessarily convenient places, mind you, but places nonetheless.

But when the rains and warm temps come and those huge snow mounds melt, where does it all go?

I’m clear on the answer in my neck of the woods: whatever doesn’t seep down to the groundwater (making our already acid soil even more so as the salty water moves through it) flows into the creeks and the river. Our river is the Genesee, ultimately leading to Great Lakes north of us. It carries with it all that road salt and sand, all the dirt and the bits of garbage it picked up.

Whether we put it immediately into the river when it falls or wait until warm weather wears it down, the end result is the same – stuff we don’t want in the water going there. En masse.

I, too, want my winter roads to be safe. I know that a combination of salt & sand is the only way to do that. So while I curse the impact on my car, I’m grateful that tires find purchase on the road. But I sure don’t like to think about when happens when it all melts.

Is it different in cities?