Cheese: What it Means for Winter Roads in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (CIVIC MEDIA) – America’s Dairyland is displayed across license plates as cars drive over cheese brine treated roads, here’s why it’s sticking in some counties.

Wisconsin, known as the “Cheese Capitol of the World.”

Using a cheese byproduct to treat slick and slippery winter roads.

Green County has been using cheese brine to pre-wet roads before putting down salt treatments for over 20 years. It acts as a layer that grabs the salt that is thrown down and holds it in place. Research found that around 30% of salt scatters off the road. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Highway Commissioner says it also helps activate the salt quicker.

WisDOT gets the brine from local cheese factories, a trade secret for years. They say the brine is helping Green County be more eco-friendly when treating the roads as they use less salt during and after a storm. This is also cutting back on polluted runoff into fresh local waterways.

Green County is now the second least user of salt in the entire state of Wisconsin. Typically using 100,000 gallons of the cheese brine to treat the roads per year.

It wasn’t long until Polk County followed their lead. This northwest Wisconsin county adopted the salty, watery byproduct cheese brine in 2009.

Since cheese brine is a waste product anyways, counties can typically get it for free from local factories. This can save towns money on salt, while keeping the roads safe still.

Road conditions can even be improved with this mixture in extreme temperatures. Salt stops being effective when temperatures are colder than 15 degrees. The use of salt stops working all together when it’s 6 below zero.

Other alternatives to salt that Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, and parts of Canada use is a beet juice blend.