Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the brine solution either. For starters, it's a waste of money, since our snows usually begin as rain, which simply washes the brine away.

But it can't be good for roadside flowers and trees, or our lakes and rivers.

Southern cities typically don't have the man power or plows to do an adequate job of removing snow after the fact that northern cities do. What do you think that solid stuff was that they used to put down after it snowed? It was salt and typically loads more than is used now by spraying a brine solution on the roads in anticipation of the snow. This results in a lot less salt usage in this form than the old solid stuff that was put down which was typically beaten off the road by traffic and did little good. In addition, the brine on the road allows the snow and ice at the roads' surface to remain unfrozen so that it can easily be removed without the street damage that occurs if you try to remove frozen precipitation from the road surface.

They started doing this in Raleigh after we had a snowstorm where it was in the low 20's and we only got half an inch. It cause gridlock on the streets b/c everyone left at the same time and the streets weren't sprayed.

I don't much like the brine especially if you get stuck behind a brine truck. Might as well get a gift certificate to the carwash.

I'm pretty sure there just isn't a magic cure. Snow/ice happens here, sometimes, and since it's such a sometimes event, at least here in the Piedmont, NC doesn't have the gear or crews to address it, like up North. But, the growing public demands and it keeps the newscasters in business.

Here in Raleigh, pre-brining the roads 'just in case' seems to be a direct knee jerk reaction to the debacle back a couple of years ago which made a major mess - not anybody's fault, but the DOT took the fall. Lots of politics involved, like it or not.

I come from a much harsher winter clime and see much of this as 'much ado about nothing' ... but, that was there and this is here. That it snowed last Friday night and schools are still closed on Tuesday is amazing ..... but, not so much considering the logistics of transporting kids and the liabilities current society heaps on all levels. I'm still scratching my head ....

As for brine run-off ..... I may well be very wrong, but compared with the pure salt/sand mixes up North, it's probably neglible - jmo.

Brine has been used for years in PA, where I used to live. It does seem to prevent icing on the roads, when the conditions are right. I never heard any environmentalists of garden groups complaining of problems due to run off, and believe me, they would have.