The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has some guidelines about how to and not to remove snow. The photograph depicts a practice that appears to not adhere to the DEP’s guidelines. This afternoon, snow was dumped from a path into the Connecticut River. Because it was cleared from a pedestrian path, it is unclear if the snow was mixed with salt or sand. Some sections of the path had appeared to be treated with salt, while others did not.
The DEP guidelines regarding snow removal:
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Best Management Practices for Disposal of Snow Accumulations from Roadways and Parking Lots
Purpose: These guidelines have been developed to clarify DEP recommendations to state and municipal officials, and others regarding the removal and disposal of snow accumulations from roadways and parking lots. For purposes of this guidance snow accumulations refers to snow banks and snowpiles that are removed by front-end loader or by loading on trucks for disposal. This guidance does not apply to normal snow plowing operations that must, inevitably, discharge some snow into wetlands and watercourses.
Problem: Current road maintenance activities include removal of snow accumulations from bridges, roads and parking areas for the purpose of providing more space for subsequent snow storms and for ease of travel and parking. Sometimes this snow is moved by truck or with a front-end loader and deposited directly into surface waters of the state including streams, wetlands and Long Island Sound. This practice is not recommended due to the presence of dirt, salt, litter and other debris, which are routinely mixed in the accumulated snow.
Under normal conditions of snowmelt, the majority of these contaminants remain on or next to the paved surface or may be captured in stormwater catch basins. These contaminants can then be swept from streets and bridges or vacuumed from catch basin sumps. However, when accumulated snow is collected and dumped into surface waters, this mixture of snow, sand and debris may smother aquatic life in the bottom of streams and rivers and degrade the aesthetics of the surface water with silt plumes and litter. Large quantities of snow (and the sand and debris) may also cause blockage of storm drainage systems, resulting in increased chance for localized flooding.
Recommended Management Practice: Snow accumulations removed from roadways, bridges, and parking lots should be placed in upland areas only, where sand and other debris will remain after snowmelt for later removal. Care must be exercised not to deposit snow in the following areas:
- freshwater or tidal wetlands or in areas immediately adjacent to such areas where sand and debris may be flushed during rainstorms;
- on top of storm drain catch basins;
- in storm drainage swales;
- on stream or river banks which slope toward the water, where sand and debris can get into the watercourse; and,
- in areas immediately adjacent (within at least 100 feet) of private or public drinking water well supplies (due to the possible presence of road salt).
Implementation: The Department recognizes that there is a considerable need for flexibility in implementation of this policy. There is no intent to interfere with snow plowing operations. Where trucking and snow dumping operations are undertaken the Department recommends these guidelines be followed.
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It appears that in Connecticut, there is a gray area about this issue. In some states, it’s straight up illegal to do this.
While some of us are having trouble finding places to move all the new snow cluttering our driveways and sidewalks, the snow being dumped in this location was in a park. Here, there are alternatives to heaving it over the bank and into the river. While this seems to be merely going against some guidelines that appear to lack any teeth, it’s at minimum lazy and not necessary.
The MDC truck that was idling in this area for at least an hour is another story.
UPDATED 22 Jan 2011:
Today, they were dumping snow over the side of the Founders Bridge into the river. This time, it was clear that sand and salt were mixed in with the snow. See photos below:
Jennifer S
Very interesting. Thanks for doing the research on that.
Damian
Good reporting.
From what I understand, the MDC is in charge of cleaning the park under an agreement with the non-profit Riverfront Recapture.
Cleaning the park is big work and thus requires big funding from an especially committed organization because it lies in a floodplain and tons of silt are deposited on its walkways every single Spring.
In much of Greater Hartford we trust the MDC to do what’s right for our water. So maybe they’ve considered the fine points made in this post? At the very least, they must have considered that the river will rise come Spring and pick up whatever has been tossed down on the walkways in Winter.
In addition, in the link for uswaternews.com, at the end of the article 2 rivers in Pennsylvania are suggested by a geoenvironmental scientist as preferable places to dump snow because “larger rivers…might mitigate the threat from the high chloride levels.”
The first one mentioned, the Susquehanna, is huge, much bigger than the Connecticut; but the other one, the Schuylkill, is about a third to a fifth the size of the Connecticut in terms of length and watershed, respectively.
So if a smaller river like the Schuylkill is still big enough to neutralize so much salt, then the Connecticut is more than sufficiently sized.
On the other hand, I think the tap water here is waaaayyyy over-chlorinated. If they can’t get chlorine levels right, then what hope is there for chloride levels?
Hour-long idling trucks and the dumping of excess human waste into the Wethersfield Cove are further examples of how MDC activity is based on indolence and shortcomings, and not necessarily on the best interests of people and nature.
To reiterate: Are the very people charged with caring for our water really caring for our water?
Is there a bureaucratic distinction between the Connecticut River proper and the watershed that feeds it, i.e., is the River under the aegis of the DEP and the rest of the watershed under that of the MDC? And if so, is coordination between the DEP and the MDC required for maintaining at least an environmentally neutral stewardship of the River?
Have the clowns taken over the circus? 🙂
Kerri Provost
My concern is not so much about a few buckets full of snow, sand, and salt going in the river as it is about the likelihood that this happening in locations all along the river. The way I see it, if people have other reasonable places to put the debris, they should exhaust those options first.
Damian
The update definitely makes it easier to see your point. If plowpeople are so cavalier here and elsewhere up through Western Mass. and along the borders of New Hampshire and Vermont, it adds up.
Dumping grit off the bridge is sloppy, lazy, and gross. The river deserves better, as does the city.