Tonight I walked outside my house and saw a lot of ice on the front steps, so I grabbed a handful of salt from the pail at the front door and tossed it down to melt the ice more quickly.
What is the impact a cupful of salt on your front steps has, compared to millions of tons distributed over roads across our nation? Are there different methods of deicing that are better than sodium chloride (NaCl)? How does salt runoff affect humans, wildlife, soil, air, or water?
REMINDER: If you plan on answering any of these questions for me, please keep in mind that I'm not interested in opinions, I'm only interested in facts! So let's bring some facts to the table so we can form an educated opinion.
I look forward to your responses!