Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Molasses in January

This winter, icy roads in Howard County will be treated with a new product called Ice Bite which is a combination of salt brine and molasses. According to this story by Michael Dresser in The Sun today, this product “will be used in a pilot project in Frederick and Howard counties to test its effectiveness in pre-treating highways before spraying salt.”

It is apparently better for the environment too.

“Christopher P. Swan, an ecologist and associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has studied the impact of rising salt levels in streams - frequently attributed to heavy road salt application. He said he's found subtle but potentially significant changes in the development of grey tree frogs, aquatic insects and zooplankton, the microscopic animals in water that feed on algae.

Swan says he thinks using the molasses-based product as a supplement to rock salt would probably help reduce the amount of salt that is getting into area streams.”

I guess it’s not just for baking anymore….

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What tests were done to confirm this will not make the roads more slick in thawing and rainy conditions. Molassis is very slick.

Freemarket said...

I wonder if the sweet molasses will cause animals like deer to stand in the roadway and lick it up, possibly creating more accidents? Molasses has been added to cow/horse/goat/etc. feed for years. Any livestock feed called "sweet feed" has molasses in it.

Alicia said...

I wonder if Howard County will smell like gingerbread.... perfect for Christmas.

Bob O said...

Test data in this climate, if you please.

Agreed that the runoff from road salt may effect the local watershed, but....

Test data in this environment, if you please.

Anonymous said...

The jury is still out on molasses in roadways, but looks like it's headed for knucklehead of the year award.

Sarah said...

It's a pilot project, meaning this _is_ the test here.

Also, if it's been used in other states like Ice Bite has been used in other states like "Virginia, New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio for "almost 10 years," might as well give it a shot here. Ohio gets more snow, VA probably a little less if not the same, so it's a good bet that it'll work here fine.