Oh, Let's Talk Snow

Like many others today across country, I am having to shovel snow from yet another storm.  The problem being, this is the fifth measurable snow storm since December of last year and with no melting, the stuff is starting to pile up.  I came upon this story to share because I remember when the snow was pushed into the ocean, never to have to be dealt with again. It is illegal today.  That would be a"no no"...... not unlike still using plastic bags at the grocery store or forgetting to put out that plastic bin full of washed tin cans and read newspapers. (where is that bin)  I guess the snow is treated with salt so it can not be pushed into the ocean.  Or maybe the tide would rise if snow were to be left to melt on the beach somewhere.  Maybe the snow is sooo dirty that the fish would not be able to see where they are swimming?  I do know that we have no where to put it and my arms are too short and I am too tired to shovel anymore of it....

     from Barbara Anderson's column today:

You may have noticed those piles of snow that, if you are a person with a shovel, are higher than you can toss the next layer of the stuff you remove from the driveway. Businesses and communities here on the North Shore complain that there is no place to put it; the open space "snow dumps" are overflowing too.

Note that "North Shore" implies there is an entire ocean somewhere within range of our departments of public works. When I first moved here, the snow was pushed or dumped directly into that ocean, where it melted, dispersed and diffused itself all the way to West Africa.

Then the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act made it illegal to dump snow in the ocean. Now it sits around, blocking visibility for drivers and walkers, becoming impossible to pile, until eventually it melts and flows one way or another into the ocean.Yet another reason why global warming is better than another Ice Age. Where would we put the additional snow, never mind the advancing glaciers?Environmentalists argue that plowed snow contains salt, leaked motor oil and shopping carts, so it shouldn't be dumped into the ocean. I'm not making this up.