NEWS

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Spreading less sanding chip for snow and ice control means there is less clean-up in the spring using the street sweeper. For example it only 6 weeks to complete street sweeping of the entire town this year, whereas it took 9-12 weeks in previous years to complete the same scope of work. 

“We’re piloting the use of beet brine as a replacement for calcium chloride, it’s more environmentally safe, less corrosive and at the end of the day it’s less costly. We’re piloting that to figure out if we have a good alternative.” 

About our time in Sylvan Lake 

 “Our first priority is moving citizens safely through the city. We’re always looking for ways to innovate and we’re always conscious of … the impact [on] the environment,” says Chris McGeachy, communications advisor for the City of Calgary.

 "So about 5,500 litres [of beet brine], which is a full truck for us, represents about 980 kilograms of salt," he said.

"And if we used a full truck of just salt, that would represent about 7,000 kilograms. It's a situation where we're just trying to reduce the chloride usage and be a little bit more environmentally friendly."

The beet brine is used to pre-treat pavement before snow falls.

Offering a more environmentally-friendly product to the Canadian market is important, Grayston

said.