Seattle's Low Salt Diet

The city leaders in Seattle don't mind if you wreck your car on icy roads as long as they don't contribute salt to Puget Sound:

To hear the city's spin, Seattle's road crews are making "great progress" in clearing the ice-caked streets.

But it turns out "plowed streets" in Seattle actually means "snow-packed," as in there's snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

"We're trying to create a hard-packed surface," said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. "It doesn't look like anything you'd find in Chicago or New York."

The city's approach means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains, Wiggins said.

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.

"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."

Puget Sound is full of - let's all say it together - SALT WATER. A little road salt will not make enough of a difference to be noticed by the local flora and fauna. However, those folks who wrap their cars around telephone polls and leak oil and radiator coolant down the storm drains may have a different view of Puget Sound ecology than the city's leaders. Their lawyers may also look at things very differently.