Join us for a hands-on brining training workshop in the Deer Creek Watershed at City of Webster Groves Public Works at 145 E. Waymire Ave., Webster Groves, MO 63119 on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 from 1–4:00 PM to share experience and insight among municipalities and St. Louis area snow removal professionals only (all others should sign up here to be added to the waitlist). Free of charge. Pre-registration is required by October 18th. Space is limited, so RSVP below today to reserve and guarantee your spot to attend this event. 

Hosted by City of Webster Groves, Shaw Series for Stormwater and Landscape Professionals, Missouri Department of Conservation, and Missouri Botanical Garden's Deer Creek Watershed Alliance funded by Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, the Holton family, Great Rivers Greenway, Open Space STL, Missouri Department of Conservation, and US EPA Region 7 through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (subgrant number G22-NPS-09), under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.

If you attend, you will learn about the following:

• Financial savings that can be obtained by a reduction in staff hours needed for winter street maintenance
• Financial savings that can be obtained by a reduction in the amount of salt purchased during winter months 
• Various styles and costs of equipment needed to utilize the brining technique in your community or business with an opportunity to tour and see a demonstration of City of Webster Grove's equipment 
• Better stormwater management practices
• Benefits to water quality

Note, chloride is a major pollutant of concern that cannot be addressed through plant-based implementation projects. It is apparent that the most effective chloride reduction strategy is to reduce the amount of road salt used since the largest exceedances of state water quality standards are observed in the cold-weather months. Applying brine or a 23% dissolved salt 77% water mixture to roads as an anti-icing pretreatment practice to get roadways ready for winter storms can dramatically decrease the amount of salt used, expense, and the amount of salt that ends up in streams.

City of Webster Groves, a key partner of the Deer Creek Watershed Alliance, used approximately 200 tons less of rock salt due to their voluntary efforts to brine before winter storms in 2019-2020 according to their Public Works Department. During a recent study, the contributions to chloride in urban stormwater from winter brine and rock salt application were compared by monitoring stormwater runoff from residential areas in six paired cities in St. Louis County during the winters of 2016–2017 and 2017–2018. One of the three cities included in this study that has adopted the use of brine is Webster Groves. The study concluded that the use of brining by city governments resulted in a 45% average reduction of chloride loads conveyed to streams, demonstrating that brining is a highly viable BMP for local municipal operations (Comparison of Contributions to Chloride in Urban Stormwater from Winter Brine and Rock Salt Application, 2019 Danelle M. Haake* and Jason H. Knouft, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02864). 

Click here to download the flyer for this event to learn more.  Note, the detailed agenda for this event will be posted here soon.  

The registration deadline for this event is Wednesday, October 18, 2023. Please register below.  In addition, there is an option to add your name to the waiting list for this event if all the available seats fill.  Please register separately to add your name to the waiting list here.