{"id":2557,"date":"2025-11-13T01:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.seagrant.w3.uvm.edu\/?page_id=2557"},"modified":"2026-04-17T13:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:14:50","slug":"salt-savvy-tips-for-municipal-snow-fighters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/seagrant\/salt-savvy-tips-for-municipal-snow-fighters\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt Savvy Tips for Municipal Snow Fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are a variety of sustainable salt practices that municipal winter maintenance professionals can follow that both keep people safe and reduce use of salt. This includes such things as monitoring pavement temperatures<\/a> <\/a>and adjusting salt accordingly<\/a>, calibrating equipment<\/a>, using segmented and secondary plows<\/a>, and using a salt-water mixture (brine) to pre-wet salt at the spinner<\/a> or as a liquid on paved surfaces<\/a>. Other sustainable salt practices include using RWIS<\/a> and tracking salt use.<\/a> Lake Champlain Sea Grant developed a table to describe a variety of options municipalities might consider, with pros and cons for the environment, costs, liability and service described. You can access that table here.<\/a> In addition, Lake Champlain Sea Grant partnered with several Vermont communities to develop short videos we hope will help winter maintenance professionals understand such techniques. Those follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Equipment Calibration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How-Tos for Municipal Trucks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When municipal salting equipment is new, an initial one-time calibration process is required. The process is described by Dan Guillmette with the City of South Burlington, Vermont, in this three-and-a-half-minute video. This video also includes instructions for doing an annual catch or drop test to calibrate the salt spreaders on the trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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