Winter road maintenance conference set for May 17 - 2010-04-27

For More Information Contact:
Ernest E. (Lee) Keet, Chair, Water Quality Committee, AdkAction.org
Phone: 518 261 6608
Email: Lee@AdkAction.org
John Sheehan, Communications Director, Adirondack Council
Phone: 518-432-1770
Email: jsheehan@adirondackcouncil.org

AdkAction.org and the Adirondack Council will sponsor an inter-organizational meeting at Paul Smith’s
College at 10 a.m. on May 17th to discuss ways to solve the growing problem of winter road salt
damage in the Adirondack Park.

Two recent studies, Review of Effects and Costs of Road De-icing with Recommendations for
Winter Road Management in the Adirondack Park, and Low Sodium Diet, Curbing New York's
Appetite for Damaging Road Salt, that were underwritten by the conference sponsors document the
damage done by our current winter road maintenance procedures. The latest study by the Adirondack
Watershed Institute under sponsorship of AdkAction.org compares peer-reviewed literature from around
the world and reports specific cost and damage assessments, along with recommended changes in
practices that could dramatically reduce the environmental impact of winter road treatment without
increasing costs or reducing safety. Dan Kelting, Executive Director of AWI and primary author of the
latest study, will summarize the key findings and issues as an introduction at the May 17 meeting. (A
summary of the findings of that study can be found at www.adkaction.org/Salt_Press_Release.pdf). The
Adirondack Council’s Low Salt Diet publication is on their website at
www.adirondackcouncil.org/Road Salt Report209.pdf

"All of the data and recommendations we have collected and published will go to waste if we don't get
them into the hands of the folks who handle the day-to-day decisions for road maintenance in the
Adirondacks," said Brian L. Houseal, Executive Director of the Adirondack Council. "This meeting will
give us a chance to share what we have learned with state and local officials. It will also give us a
chance to ask what we can do as advocacy organizations to help them. We don't want these important
studies to die on a storage shelf somewhere."