Happy Winter Salt Awareness Week!

The City of Madison is proud member of Wisconsin Salt Wise, also a founding member of the statewide group that encourages limited salt use to help our area waterways. This week is National Winter Salt Awareness Week (Jan. 22-26, 2024), so we’d like to remind you of a few resources and bits of information to help you reduce salt. City of Madison Engineering Division Stormwater Engineer Phil Gaebler gives these top 3 ways you can reduce salt use on sidewalks and driveways:  

• After you use your snow blower, shovel and scraper, try a push broom instead of salt. This works great when it’s very cold. 
• Measure the salt you use, a coffee mug can treat 10 sidewalk squares. 
• Give your salt time to work and remember that it will work slower in cold temperatures. 

Also, don’t forget, the City has an updated salt ordinance where the salt that is still on the sidewalk after all the ice has melted needs to be swept up and disposed of in the garbage or saved for next time.  

Watch Live: Winter Salt Awareness Week Webinars  

Wisconsin Salt Wise is hosting a number of webinars with experts this week focused all around salt use. Watch live or view the recordings on Wisconsin Salt Wise’s YouTube Page.   

• Monday, Jan. 22, 2024: Salt Pollution Trends in our Lakes and Rivers with speaker Hilary Dugan, University of Wisconsin-Madison 
• 12:30-1 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024: Salt: An Environmental Justice Contaminant with speaker Sawyer Bailey, Adirondack Action 
• 12:30-1 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024: Ecological Consequences of Salting our Freshwater with Bill Hintz, University of Toledo 
• 12:30-1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024: From Pathways to Highways: Tribal Perspectives with speakers Bill Quackenbush, Ho-Chunk Nation and Jeremy Weso, Menominee Nation 
• 12:30-1 p.m., Friday, Jan. 26, 2024: Winter Ops that Reduce Salt Use with speaker Laura Fay, Western Transportation Institute, Montana State University  

Other Engineering Resources 

• Less Salty Digi Series:  

  • Ep. 1: Salt Application with a Pavement Thermometer 

  • Ep. 2:Winter Snow Removal Kit 

  • Ep. 3: Snowblowers 

  • Ep. 4: Contractor Questions 
  • Ep. 5:  Ahead of the Storm  

• Everyday Engineering Podcast: Episodes focused on Salt Use:  
• It’s Brine Time! 
• A Sweet perspective on Salty Storms 
• Salt: Great for French Fries, Not so great for fish fry