About Michael Virtanen

Michael Virtanen is a former Explorer staff reporter who also previously worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press and for daily newspapers in Albany, Utica and Amsterdam, N.Y.

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Comments

  1. Jim McCulley says

    The salt used is so out of control. I followed a truck this year that was laying it down heavier than the snow. Unfortunately, the Village of Lake Placid and North Elba are now in competition with the state to see who can lay more salt. Why? Most roads have a 30 mph speed limit under good conditions.

  2. Steve Saviski says

    … Not just the Adirondacks , Here in SAt. Lawrence cty ,they are out way before a storm and all the way through and all it does is makes the road slushy and more dangerous along with rotting out your cars body.. Fourtunitly we live away from the road far enough our well is good, Long past time to go back to straight sand. The roads and environment will be a lot better off..!

  3. Janes says

    How is this a surprise? Road salt is bad for anyone who doesn’t make money selling or spreading it, heck many places in AK, which has real mountains, do just fine only using sand. The road salt needs to go.

  4. David Colchamiro says

    Your interesting article in today’s Times Union, “Study: Road salt tainted wells”, led me to find my copy of NY’s “The Adirondack Park in the Twenty First Century”.

    It was published under the auspices of Peter A. Berle in April, 1990. I was the NYS Dept of Transportation’s liaison to Berle’s Commission. We did a very extensive study of road salts and other treatments and included that in our submission to the Commission.

    The Commission Report Recommendation # 208, page 85, says “An APA/APS/DOT task force should study the environmental impacts of road salt, sand and other de-icing materials and its finding should be used in developing a new DOT policy for the Adirondack Park that minimizes the adverse environmental impacts of road treatment”.

    I don’t know if such a task force was created or if the Commission’s recommendation was otherwise followed up by NYSDOT.

  5. Eric Thompson says

    I live in Lake clear New York and I would like to know if I can get my water tested also to see if it is contaminated with the salt run off

  6. Bill Miner says

    I live on the NW edge of the park. The DOT trucks dump way too much salt on RT 3. Many times there was no need (in my opinion). I have seen where the DOT trucks were dumping salt on the state highway while the town roads received no work. The light snow blew off the town roads while the state highway was a mess.

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