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EVS 1500 News Blitz

sharing environmental science through the news every semester

How we can BEET the winter

11/26/2019

8 Comments

 
By: ​Lee Simmons
Summary: During a Michigan winter it can be very dangerous to drive on the roads due to the ice and snow. Normally, city and state governments would use large trucks to spread rock salt which chemically lowers the melting point of the ice and snow, allowing it to melt into significantly less dangerous liquid water. This method does work, but it is rather ineffective and harmful to certain environments. Rock salt needs to be applied many times during the course of a winter and any time the snow melts, that salt gets dragged away in the runoff and ends up in our Great Lakes and other fresh waterways, slowly adding salinity to them. But what if I told you there was a better way?
​
About 55% of all sugar produced in the United States come from the sugar beet and Michigan is the fourth largest grower of the sugar beet in the country. A byproduct of growing and processing sugar beets into white sugar is beet juice. This byproduct would normally be disposed of but can actually be used rather effectively as a substitute to traditional road salts. When beet juice is mixed with a small of amount of salt and spread on the roads like usual, it has several improvements compared to just using rock salt. 1. The beet juice mixture is rather sticky, allowing it to stay on the roads for longer, meaning it doesn’t get dragged away if the snow melts, reducing the number of times it needs to be reapplied during the winter. 2. The mixture uses less salt, meaning that when it finally gets caught up in the runoff, it does not salinate our freshwater nearly as much. 3. This beet juice mixture can even help reduce the number of potholes in the roads. Pot holes are caused by the freezing and thawing of water that seeps into cracks in the roads, but since the mixture is a liquid, it will also seep into the cracks and keep the water in there from freezing, thereby helping to prevent potholes.
Why we should care? Our freshwater systems are one the most important ecological features we have here in Michigan, and this would help to protect them from being salinated, I believe that is reason enough to care about this topic.​
Picture
Credit: http://montanakids.com/agriculture_and_business/crops/Sugar_Beets.htm
Example News Article:
https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/17/beet-juice-roads-michigan/2352147001/

This article talks about how the Michigan senate passed the bill, some pros of the beet mixture, why it’s a viable solution to the salinization problem, but my favorite part is that it talks about how we need to be careful before we fully implement it. One of the senators who voted against the bill stated that while this solution does sound good in theory, he cautions that we should fully research all the implication that would come with this new policy and to make sure that we know of any potential impacts towards the environment and our delicate water systems.​
 Science in Action.
Sailesh Sigdel​ is a graduate student at North Dakota State University, School of Natural Resources, Department of Soil Science.

This scientist’s research is called “Effect of Seeding Time and Inter-seed Cover Crops on Sugarbeet Yield and Quality.”  This research is directly related to the prospect of using sugarbeets as a road salt alternative, because if every state that has harsh winters switches to using the beet juice mixture, we would need to maintain production of those sugar beets and they would need to be a good quality. This research addresses potential issues we could have with demand for the beets in addition to showing how we could potentially increase production if we need to meet growing demands for beet juice.
8 Comments
Hannah LaFleur
11/26/2019 11:27:28

This would be really amazing if beets were replaced by the normal road salts used today. It would help with the roads which is something Michigan desperately needs and help to save our lakes/waterways. I just wonder if there are any negative effects of this mixture and if it would harm things in another way? If not I think would be a great replacement.

Reply
Cami Emerson
11/26/2019 12:10:37

I think using beet juice would be a great alternative. It’s a bonus that we already produce this product in our state. I wonder what the cost difference is between the beet juice and road salt we have been using. I thought it was interesting that it could help with pot holes as well. This would be a good selling point to communities.

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Courtney Sheikh
11/26/2019 23:42:04

It seems as beet juice is more beneficial than salt in many ways. I never thought about the beet juice helping to prevent potholes and I am always for that! If beet juice is going to allow us to use salt it would be a good idea to look into. With it staying on the ground longer would this mean that it would also reduce black ice, that can always be a positive thing as well.

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Rob Mosesov
11/30/2019 14:50:00

Very interesting! We need substitutes for road salt because it can get into our water systems and be very toxic to wildlife. I'm sure beets contain at least some nutrients so not only can it melt snow, but it could be nourishing to certain organisms - like ones that break down sewage.

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Rachel Cozzi
12/1/2019 22:58:13

This is a very interesting post! I had of course heard about the possible use of sugar beets, but did not realize how many pros it has. I did not know that Michigan was such a large producer of sugar beets or that the product that would be used would be byproduct, so it would have even less of an environmental impact. I hope salt begins to be replaced with alternatives such as beets in the near future

Reply
Brendan Alvis
12/3/2019 11:27:49

This seems like a great solution to the problem. It seems especially good because the beet juice is not being used anyways. Also it would be really cool to have bright pink roads. I'd be interested in reading more about the chemical impacts (positive or negative) beet juice could have when used.

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Tyler Travis
12/4/2019 11:45:51

This is a very interesting alternative solution that I would love to know more about. Beet juice seems like a fairly easy and accessible resource especially in Michigan where beets are already produced. If it can decrease the amount of salinity getting into the Great Lakes I think that is crucial. Potholes are also a huge problem in Michigan so it seems like the beets could be very beneficial here in several ways. I am curious about the cost of beet juice. Is it significantly more costly than the rock salt? Because if so, that could be a huge reason that many people will vote against the bill. I am very interested to see what happens with this topic.

Reply
Tyler Dudenas
12/16/2019 23:53:05

This seems like it could be really effective in Michigan, and other states and climates with harsh winters. I wonder what the long term effects of beet juice might be on the roads. Also will there ever be a problem where beet juice becomes a more scarce resource. I sincerely doubt it especially because it would never be able to actually compete with salt in my opinion. I'd love to see it however, but i'm just a little cynical to the idea of it actually catching on like salt did.

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  • Home
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