The Brookhaven Highway Department will be using a NYS grant to purchase salt reduction equipment to reduce road salt usage and contamination of surface waters.
The Brookhaven Highway Department is announcing receipt of a $293,000 New York State grant to protect and restore water resources through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Water Quality Improvement Project program. The grant funding will enable the Highway Department to acquire salt reduction equipment to reduce road salt usage and prevent contamination of surface waters.
The grant will allow for the acquisition of two types of equipment: plow guards and brine sprayers. These tools will improve winter road maintenance practices by enabling precision brine application and extending the life and performance of snow plow blades. In turn, this will reduce the impacts from salt-laden runoff into nearby surface waters and minimize salt intrusion into groundwater.
“Adding brine-spreading applicators to our existing arsenal of winter road maintenance equipment will lessen our reliance on road salt that can pollute stormwater systems and nearby waterbodies,” said Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Daniel Losquadro. “And, the Razor System Split Plowguards will extend blade life and ensure more effective snow and ice removal, minimizing the need for repeated salting.”
Brine application through the eight new 535-gallon capacity brine sprayers will use up to 70 percent less salt than traditional methods, Losquadro said. In addition, the 212 new plow guards are designed to be more efficient than straight-edge blades and last significantly longer than traditional blades.
“Anything we can do to ensure our plow operators can stay out on the roads longer during these winter storm events, rather than having to pull their equipment off and into our maintenance shop for repairs, means the sooner we can get the roads cleared,” Losquadro said.
Through the addition of this equipment – the purchase of which will cost $367,000 and will require a 25 percent match from the Town – the Highway Department anticipates reducing its reliance on rock salt by 30 percent. The current yearly average rock salt application is 13,872 tons spread over 3,700 lane miles in the Town of Brookhaven.
“Over the years, we have seen Brookhaven’s coastal waters impacted by flooding and storm surges,” Losquadro said. “Stormwater from such events carries harmful pollutants from public roadways into nearby waterways, degrading water quality. This project will improve the Highway Department’s capacity to mitigate harmful road maintenance pollutants from entering the Town’s stormwater system and discharging into nearby waterbodies, while strengthening our ability to maintain safe road conditions during increasingly variable winter weather.”
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