*snerk*

[icepixie]

Hey, Northerners: Here is what you need to deal with your excess snow! Apparently it can double as a weed-whacker. Er, weed-burner. For when you really do have a scorched earth policy.

In a similar vein, I recently wondered why cities don't just collect the worst of the snow and dump it into a convenient lake/river/ocean, but I suppose there's salt and motor oil and whatnot in it that the fish wouldn't appreciate. Though maybe if you could run it through a wastewater plant first or something...

Comments

[celamity]

Up here, they do dump the freshest layer of snow in the ocean. Getting 1/2-2 feet at a time is a fairly common occurrence, and when that happens, they scoop all the fresh snow up in huge piles. When the roads are cleared for traffic, they truck the snow away and dump it in the ocean.

The contaminated snow piles are usually melted by mid june.

[forsweatervests.livejournal.com]

Well, our rivers at this point are frozen over. I'm not sure they're entirely into trucking tons of snow to the ocean to dump, but I actually really like that idea. Begone, foul snow!

[idharao.livejournal.com]

We used to do that, but with the amount of industrial work that goes on and the pollution that cities accumulate, it's illegal to dump snow into the water supply.

I think the difference is if they can see it happening, it's illegal. If not, then, welp-- All storm drains lead to the ocean.

But snow does make things very inconvenient, not to mention the fact that I am very tired of the cold.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

...Okay, that is freaking fantastic. I love vintage ads! ♥

And yeah, there's a whole Thing about the salt and oil and all. Poor fishies, they get it bad enough with the road run-off as it is... But it does seem like kind of a waste.

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

WANT.

It's a shame I didn't take pictures. There are snow drifts in my yard that come up to my armpits.

Also, the "lakes frozen over" thing has already been commented on, but - around here that's what public swimming pools do in the winter. They hold all the excess snow. Also soccer fields, and the like.

Yeah. We get creative when mother nature gives us two feet at a time, dontcha know.

[nickless.livejournal.com]

Here is what you need to deal with your excess snow!

"Quick starts fires!" Oh, I'll bet it does...

The other issue with dumping the snow into "holding pens", whether it be rivers, swimming pools (ours tend to be full of their own snow), fields, whatever, is that you have to GET it there. It takes a ton of time, equipment, and manpower to actually pick the snow up and transport it somewhere else rather than just shoving it out of the way. That's actually what they spent all day doing at the high school today, since the kids weren't there - taking the huge piles out of the middle of the street so it can be used for parking again. But it took a LONG time to move four blocks' worth.

I do know that for the bridges and areas right next to the river, the city has just dumped it over the side. But otherwise, it's just way too inconvenient.

[rensong.livejournal.com]

In places where we're used to getting lots of snow, we do actually have "snow pits" for a lack of a better term. These are several empty lots turned into grassy holes in the ground, with sides maybe 15 feet high and several culverts around the bottom. In winters with lots of snow, snow plows and dump trucks can load up with all the excess snow and ice and dump them in there. In the summertime, they usually turn into soccer fields or the like.