After a long break, the sun is back and Mother Nature is melting the snow. But one company says they can do it faster, and cleaner.
Joey Shubert is a shop foreman for Trecan Combustion, a company that builds industrial sized machines that melt snow.
“It’s simple, but effective,” says Shubert. “It’s pretty much a large furnace with a hot water holding tank.”
After the snow has been loaded, they drive over a manhole, and the water empties into a sewer.
Industrial Snow Melters are used at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport and the Halifax Shopping Centre, as well as cities around the world.
“All across Russia, actually, there’s one in Helsinki, a couple in Japan, and one in the Republic of Georgia,” says company president Glen Burnett
The machines are built and manufactured in Nova Scotia, however they’re not used by the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Glen Burnett says Halifax would be in much better shape if they used the huge machines.
“It can be much faster, if you have trucks that are stuck in traffic as well, waiting,” says Burnett, “I mean, I’ve seen it.”
Jennifer Stairs, a spokesperson for the municipality says Halifax did consider using the snow melters, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the time or money.
“They use an extreme amount of diesel fuel, so it would bump up our fuel costs substantially,” says Stairs. “Also, we’re a city in that we’re very lucky we can dump the snow without having to drive very far.”
Because of a particularly bad winter, Boston has used the snow melters, but Halifax maintains the additional 50 pieces of heavy equipment it brought in is a better fit.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
