As cold weather brings more ice to our roads and sidewalks, people look for new ways to de-ice with less of an impact on the environment. K J Customs, a small Omro business, created a new ice melt formula meant to be less corro sive and pet-friendly. The Village of Greenville is using a home-made salt brine mixture to de-ice city streets. UW Oshkosh students spent a semester researching solutions to road salt pollution.Wild Fire Ice Melt is a unique ice salt formula created by Kelly Domke of K J Customs.Its a concrete, pet, building material - friendly product, Domke says. It is less corrosive and better for the environment.Traditional road salt can damage concrete, runoff into the water supply and be harmful for pets especially if it is over used.[Wild Fire Ice Melt] is also colored purple, so youre able to see where youve applied the salt, so that you can theoretically use less, Domke says.K J Customs is based out of Omro and sells the purple ice melt, as well as other ice-prevention tools, for commercial and personal use.Domke also runs a breast cancer non-profit, and she donates a portion of every Wild Fire Ice Melt sale to families impacted by breast cancer.Donations can be made directly to the non-profit as well.Anything we can do to make it a little easier for them is worth it, Domke says.Watch the broadcast story here: From student researchers to small business owners, people look at greener ways to de-ice roadsThe Village of Greenville is making its own alternative for municipal use.The last several years, weve taken a very serious stance to reducing our chlorides, Ryan McClure, a fleet mechanic for Greenville, says.Greenville works with Salt Wise, a statewide coalition that aims to reduce salt pollution in water ways.Now, the Village makes its own brine, which is a liquid salt mixture.Salt brine is not the perfect answer, but its the best answer we have right now, McClure says.McClure also says they plow more often to prevent ice and salt from settling.We have a lot of employees here that feel very passionate about hunting and fishing, and chlorides are terrible for our ecosystem, he says.Salt pollution is an issue impacting younger generations as well.At the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, a group of student researchers are completing a capstone project on alternatives to traditional road salt. They worked with Salt Wise and UWO maintenance crews to find solutions on campus.The majority of the groups main goal is to really just push education, Rico Franklin, a senior environmental science major who is a part of the project, says. A lot of people, they see road salt, they understand why we use road salt here in Wisconsin, but they dont know any of the harmful side effects.Gwen Feitl, another environmental science senior with the project, says theyve found four possible alternatives through their research: salt brine, heated matts, physical removal and re-calibrating ice machines to spray out less salt and/or collect already used salt.I would say the most rewarding thing is definitely seeing peoples minds just slightly shift, Feitl says. Being able to realize, like hey, this standard practice that we usually use in the winter we should use this in a more responsible way.The students will present their capstone this month, but they say the project will continue on with a new group of students next semester. ...read more read less