Environmental Impacts of Roadside Snow

Winter temperatures in Anchorage Alaska are such that the snow that falls as early as October may remain along the roadside until the spring snowmelt occurs. During this time maintenance crews sand the roadways to improve driving conditions. Dissolved organics derived from the sand along with other chemicals deposited from automobiles (e.g. hydrocarbons, lubricants, other fluids) is mixed with the snow on the road and piled up behind the curb during snow removal operations. Particulate material from the roadway has been concern to the municipality during the spring snowmelt. Routine testing is not required as no regulations of roadway derived organics are present. The objective of this study was to collect samples of "road snow" from selected streets in Anchorage and run a series of lab tests to determine the quantity of organics and particulates present. The test results were then compared to the Average Daily Traffic (ADT) counts of the selected streets to determine what variation of traffic volume have on the test results. This study will determine the organic content of the snow along Anchorage roadways that is not hauled to a storage facility and will also be entering the storm drain system without any treatment.