Salt Brine in Use

 The Village Highway Department is excited to announce that after pilot testing over the past couple seasons, we have purchased a used brine system from Dave’s Tree Service. We are happy to be putting it to good use! The Village Highway Department brined the roads prior to the snow that we received this morning in a first test run of the system. We will be making some additional tweaks to the system, and you will continue to see this brine rig spraying certain roads prior to appropriate winter storms.

 Using salt brine on highly trafficked roads prior to certain winter storms is proven to reduce the total amount of salt used—which is a cost savings—and the amount of salt that bounces to the side of the road, a co-benefit that protects our ecosystem, waterways, and aquifers from salination. It's important to note that salt brine serves as just one tool in the Highway Departments winter weather toolkit. We can't completely phase out rock salt. 

 Thank you again to Dave’s Tree Service for the brine system and thank you to the Town of Rhinebeck for the sale of the brine.

To learn more about using salt brine on the roads and the history of this collaboration between the Town and the Village Highway Departments, see this webpage: https://www.climatesmartrhinebeck.org/road-salt