In a message dated 11/26/02 3:53:54 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ian@BLUEMOON.HPLX.NET writes:

> Michigan, and southeast Michigan in particular, seem to have a vested
> interest in rotting out cars, roads, bridges, and vegetation.  I only
> half-wonder how much is the auto industry's political encouragement...
> I haven't really been able to figure it out.  Casper, WY got just as much
> winter precipitation as the southeast here, and they just used sand.  Salt
> wouldn't have done any good in the really cold weather anyway.  They also
> weren't too proud to close dangerous freeways.  They also enforced chain
> laws.  What a lovely state was that for winter travel..
>
>

most people dont think of what it does to the enviornment, let alone what it
does to the metal on your car..  if you drive down a heavily salted highway
here in the northeast in late winter, early spring, you can see that all the
coniferous trees (pines, cedars, etc) within 50 feet or so of the roadway
have been "burned" by the road salt spray - their needles are all brown and
dead..  then you have to think about the runoff, the salt and chemical mix
entering the groundwater...   either way its destructive to both vehicles and
the enviornment..   but they keep dumping millions of tons on the roadways
year after year..    in fact, here in PA last night we had our first "real"
snowfall, and PennDOT was out in full force polluting the enviornment.   its
funny, nobody thinks of these things.. the state is real stringent about
vehicle exhaust emissions, but then everytime it snows/ices dumps millions of
tons of chemically treated salt all over the enviornment..
what beaurocracy..