Coastal Massachusetts town declares emergency, allowing snow to be dumped into ocean
Getting around the typically scenic seaside town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, is a white-knuckle ride as the community continues to dig out from a huge two-day snowstorm. Its hilly, historic neighborhoods feel frighteningly narrow in some spots; sidewalks buried under snow with no place to go.
"It's very challenging. It's frustrating," one man said. "I walked to get a haircut today and I almost got hit by two cars and a plow. And I was trying to stay right at the edge of the road."
Marblehead's Select Board declared an emergency, which grants the town permission to dump snow into the harbor at Riverhead Beach and State Street Landing.
Dr. Sujay Kaushal is a professor of geology, who has closely studied the environmental impacts of road salt.
"It's a water quality problem in coastal areas, just road runoff in general. And then when you have the salt associated with it mobilizing more contaminants, it can contribute pollution," Kaushal said. "It definitely makes you wonder in terms of these exposures and risks and what that does to people over time."
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection specifies snow cannot be dumped in protected areas or drinking water sources, nor in locations where trucks could damage shorelines or cause erosion.
But with potentially even more impactful winter weather just days away, many neighbors say they support solutions that prioritize public safety.
"I'm in health care so we know how important it is that people can get access; we can get ambulances, we can get people out of their houses. There's a lot of stress for people, and people shovel," another Marblehead resident said. "There's a lot of things that happen in storms like this. To be able to get to people is important. You probably have to weigh the pros and cons here."