Marple Officials Discuss Joint Brine, Compost Programs With Haverford

BROOMALL–Director of 's Public Works Department Ed Cross provided a report of recent activities in the department to the Marple Board of Commissioners at a work session meeting on Feb. 6.

Cross's report included highlights from the and the .

New Joint Brine Program Brought to Fruition

Marple Township was able to try out their new brining trucks–a shared brine program between Marple and Haverford–during January's snowfall.

"If you recall, they were calling for a dusting of snow that Thursday," shared Cross about the recent snowfall. "On that particular day, we went out–we have 88 miles of roads and 12 miles of PennDOT roads that we take care of–and we used 8,000 gallons of brine."

According to Cross, the number of gallons to salt translates to 1 ton of salt per 1,000 gallon. During January's snowfall, 8,000 gallons of brine would mean 8 tons of salt.

"So, normally, we would've used 60 tons of salt so it saved us about $4,000 alone just on salt," said Cross. "We did brine a few of the key roads on Friday and also, along with the brining, we saved about eight hours of overtime.

Cross said the brining solution is used to pre-treat the reaods before a snow falls and should be sprayed on the roads approximately 44-48 hours beforehand.

For its first use during a snowfall, Cross said, "We were very pleased with it and Haverford was pleased with it also."

Trying to Resolve Compost Issue That's Been Raising a Stink

Cross said together with Marple Township Manager Anthony Hamaday and Code Enforcement Officer Joe Romano, they met with Haverford Township officials to help resolve the odor that's been coming from the townships' joint compost pile in Haverford.

Haverford Township officials have previously stated that for neighbors affected by the odor.

"Friday we had a meeting at another site to try to work together to resolve this," said Cross. "Because that is another very costly issue that either Haverford or Marple wants to see go away."

According to Cross, Marple collects approximately 2,000 tons of leaves at a rate of about $30 per ton to the county which costs about $60,000 a year, including fuel and manpower.

The compost site in Haverford was once on dirt ground but became muddy and was later paved over, according to Dan Leefson, 7th Ward commissioner.

"Again, it is a sensitive issue and we're trying to resolve that problem also," said Cross.