Thanks, Vern!

I knew about the use (temporary, I think I read, due to availability) of
crushed basalt last winter. I didn't know that the red cinders had become
an air pollution issue. Bend is pretty dusty.

Okay, back to the magnesium chloride and my Vanagon.

My OP was about a salty powder/crust found on the windshield lower inner
rubber. Kim Brennan kindly offered the suggestion that it might be a road
salt which had been possibly drawn in through the dash defrost vents,
condensed on the inside of the glass, and then melted down onto the
rubber. It makes sense.

Vern: have you also seen this in your van?

http://picasaweb.google.com/j.michael.elliott/Vanagon#

And others who live in road salt environments: Kim proposed that if I'm
finding salt there, it will be found elsewhere in the van, too, in places
I might not wish it was. Can someone recommend a place where a fellow who
is presently not allowed to use one leg look for salt buildup to check this?

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
Bend, OR
KG6RCR

On 8/24/2009 10:46 AM Vern in Bend wrote:

>> In the meantime, I'm gonna find out if Bend uses salt of any sort
>> on the roads.
>
> The salt Bend applies to roads is liquid magnesium chloride. It is applied to
> pavement before a snow/ice event - if there is an opportunity - to prevent ice
> from binding to the pavement. (It also makes the pavement feel "greasy".)
>
> During/after a storm, they spread a crushed basalt gravel as a traction aid.
> Vehicles pound it into a very fine, poofy talcum or cement-like powder. Kinda like
> the volcanic ash from Mt. St. Helens when it erupted back in 1980.
>
> This past Winter was the first year for the crushed basalt, it was an experimental
> alternate to the red volcanic cinders which have been used forever and are still
> used by the county and state (there is an endless supply). As the area has grown,
> the red, abrasive cinder dust has become an air pollution issue in the city.
>
> Vern
>