Middlebury College
Tier2-4: Snow and Ice Removal

Middlebury College strives to be truly sustainable in snow and ice treatment and removal, not only from an environmental standpoint, but from and economic and social standpoint as well. We have been using a pretreatment of a liquid material called Ice Ban to limit the use of both fuel and ice melters during a snow event. This year, we’ve also recently switched from using salt-treated sand to an ice melter. This material is a treated salt that will aid in the melting of snow and ice on sidewalks. The treated material is less corrosive than untreated salt and works at lower temperatures. The use of the snow melt material will provide cleaner sidewalks and roads making for safer travel conditions. Studies show that there is a net environmental benefit to using treated salt compared to sand with salt when used properly. Sand has negative impacts to the environment. These include increased phosphorus loading in adjacent waterways, sedimentation buildup in catch basins, ditches and streams and air pollution issues with particulates becoming airborne. Use of salt will reduce the use of mechanical equipment on Campus, limiting fuel consumption, and less sand use will reduce the amount of spring cleaning necessary to collect residual material.