We commend all those agencies committed to best practices of winter maintenance, including using the Sensible Salting approach for snow and ice control. The public expects effective winter maintenance.  Effective winter maintenance delivers timely and reliable roadway clearing, protecting drivers against the risks of winter snow- and ice-storms, sensitive to public concerns that tax dollars be spent wisely and the environment protected. Most agencies use their own personnel; some use contractors for some or all of the work.  Good training is important to instill the principles of Sensible Salting for all operators, no matter who signs their paycheck.   Sensible Salting emphasizes getting the most from every application of salt while maintaining the safest roads possible in the most economical way and protecting the environment.

Proper spreading of road salt, improved equipment, calibration of spreaders, automatic spreader controls, road weather information systems, adequate covered storage and relocation of some stockpiles have combined to make salting of roads the most effective and safest method for snow and ice control. Salt is a necessary and accepted part of our winter environment to assure safety and mobility for the individual motorists, school buses, commercial vehicles and, especially, ambulances, fire engines and other emergency equipment. Delays in reaching victims or getting them to hospitals often is the critical difference between life and death.

But while providing safety and essential mobility, the modern snowfighter must be concerned as well with safeguarding our environment. Environmental problems concerning use and storage of salt need not exist if there is a balanced approach to use of salt for snow and ice control -- one that demonstrates care for the environment as well as for safety and mobility of people.

Winter maintenance procedures are constantly changing. Current practices will be improved and new techniques perfected. But it is unlikely there will ever be a material as efficient, as inexpensive, as safe or as plentiful as sodium chloride, ordinary salt, for removing ice and snow from roads in winter. Therefore, snowfighters need information on the latest and best procedures and techniques for combating winter storms. This training program will help snowfighters give the public the most effective snow and ice control program possible and, therefore, safe winter roads at the least overall cost.