No, for once, I am not referring to our amply proportioned Communities Secretary.
Bergen County, New Jersey has blown much of its winter services budget after the area was hit by severe winter storms (you think we had it bad here).
Just across the Hudson from New York, and despite being one of the wealthier counties in the US, officials are trying to avoid the hefty premium on road salt by opting for an alternative – pickle juice.
The authority says that green salty liquid melts snow and ice just as well as solid salt. And the price is attractive: the briny mixture costs just seven cents a gallon, compared to $63 a ton for salt. They add that this makes the pickle juice work out at an equivalent of $17 per ton, although the maths may warrant further investigation.
Barely halfway through the winter season, and with up $3 million of its $4 million snow budget gone, the authority is definitely warming to the numbers.
The mixture is used as preventative before snow becomes ‘uncontrollable’, officials add.
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