Salt savers

On Jan. 14, an article appeared in the Pioneer Press about the damage road salt has on Minnesota waterways. The article explains that Minnesota’s heavy use of salt as a deicer is endangering Minnesota’s water bodies. This is a follow-up to that article, including steps that have been taken in a city of the East Metro to reduce the use of salt as a de-icer.

The city of Oakdale has experimented with numerous chemical additives to curb its use of salt as a deicer. According to Oakdale Public Works Manager Jim Romnick, Oakdale has been independently purchasing and experimenting with different liquid deicer additives since approximately 2015. Products include Road Guard, Beet Heet, and most recently, IBG Magic — adopted in 2020 and yielding the best results so far. Oakdale continues to observe nearby communities and which products are found to be effective.

This year, Oakdale will be trying Turbo Melt, composed of magnesium chloride and a biodegradable waste product, which comes from food and beverage waste streams — these substances are byproducts of food and beverage manufacturing that would otherwise go unused. It is high in sugar and carbohydrate content, which are compounds that have been proven effective and less harmful than chloride-based deicers. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Stormwater Manual, the addition of carbohydrate-based deicers can reduce the freezing point of ice more than salt alone, and can help salt stick where applied. Carbohydrates, unlike chloride, are not corrosive to steel, and can act as a corrosion inhibitor for salt brines. The environmental impact of carbohydrate deicers is low in regard to soil, air, and vegetation; however, an increase in carbohydrates in water bodies could increase oxygen demand in aquatic ecosystems.

According to a Turbo Melt employee, the biodegradable waste product elongates the lifetime and therefore the effectiveness of the magnesium chloride compound. Together, they lower the freezing point of the surface on which the product is applied and prevent refreezing.

In addition to using these chemical additives, Romnick says that Oakdale has increased its mechanical removal of snow and ice. While the exact reduction in Oakdale’s salt use is unknown due to weather variability and differing needs for deicing year to year, Romnick says Oakdale has seen a decreased application rate per lane mile, and a reduction of salt use since these strategies were put into place.

Emma Kelsey, Oakdale

The USPS buck stops there

In the Jan. 25 Pioneer Press, an article talks of the problem with USPS in Twin City suburbs.

The Minnesota delegation of members of Congress are wanting the inspector general to find out what is wrong.

May I suggest they send out a second group of inspectors general and start at the top in Washington, D.C., with the Postmaster General, Louis Dejoy. The buck stops at his desk.

Lyle Puppe, retired postmaster, Cottage Grove

Accomplishments

One of your recent letter writers asked to “Please let us know anything he did for the country”. He was referring to Donald Trump. He could easily answer his own question by looking online for Trump’s accomplishments as president. There are several lists, including the that of the McLean County Republicans, which lists 121 significant accomplishments.

But here are a few:

Trump cut personal income taxes for 95% of American taxpayers

Poverty fell to lowest levels ever

Black unemployment was lowest in history

Latino unemployment was lowest in history

Women’s unemployment was lowest in history

Brought jobs back to America

Moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem

Forced NATO members to pay more of their share

Ended TPP

Doubled child care credit

Appointed give openly gay ambassadors

There many more. You could look it up.

Tom Froistad, North St. Paul

They ‘bend the knee’

Not only is there no shame left in the Republican party, there is no longer any pride. Following Rep. Tom Emmer’s announcement that our Minnesota’s embarrassing representatives have endorsed the insurrectionist Donald Trump as president, Trump publicly responded, “they always bend the knee.”

John Mollner, Cottage Grove

Outdated machismo

In the 2024 NFL playoffs horrific cold decided a game and fans had to be hospitalized. This outdated patriarchy machismo parallels the Oscars, where Barbie and Gretta Gerwig were snubbed nominations. As a child I watched in horror as NFL newscasters honored “great” hits on the field with slow-motion playback. Now announcers quickly say, “We’ll step away;” they don’t want viewers to focus on horrific injuries anymore.

Moving playoff games to a different stadium for terrible weather conditions is called intelligence. Another sign of machismo are the male-dominated Oscars. Men give empty honor to women when they put them on pedestals for being mothers, wives and girlfriends— but then turn against them when they display skill, power, and ability. Men control society, and when the vast majority of all violence is caused by, yes, you guessed it, men, it’s time to get rid of machismo completely. It’s outdated.

Geoffrey Saign, St. Paul

Israel must fight

People are forgetting who started the Israeli-Hamas war. Hamas started it. And then Hamas committed atrocities on the Israelis. Corpses of Israeli women were found with nails driven into their thighs and genitals. They raped women, They killed 1,200 Israelis that first day when they invaded Israel. My tears flowed that first day and will continue to flow until this war is over and Israel eliminates Hamas. Israel must fight to the end. Why can’t the world understand this?

Theresa H. Simon, Baldwin

Half?

As a former math teacher, your paper has me confused. A recent article said there are 11 new businesses on Grand Avenue and half of them are restaurants.

Jim Ashworth, St. Paul

Congratulations, Joe

My grandson Skylar Van Guilder and I have been going to Twins baseball games together since he was 6 years old. His favorite player is Joe Mauer.  Skylar is 19 now. We were at the game last year on Aug. 5 when Joe was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame. Now we are so happy that Joe was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on January 23. Congratulations to a great baseball player and a wonderful individual.

DeAnne Cherry, Woodbury

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