AGAIN I ASK--FOR YOUR Help on this--geo.

[capt.george]

---How Many ounces OR Pounds ot Nitrogeon is there in one Cubic Yard of SNOW

[BILL H]

With all due respect Captain. There are too many unknowns. You need the water content of the snow and the concentration of nitrogen in that water. i assume you don't care about the nitrogen in the air spaces in the snow. The water content could vary from a very low percentage in new dry snow, to quite high for wet snow or snow compacted by something like a snowplow. I'll make a couple of guesses and provide a SWAG.

If the water concentration of nitrogen were .5 mg/l, which is not an unreasonable value, and the snow was compacted to be 50 percent water, the amount of nitrogen would be less than 1/2 pound. Even if the snow were heavily compacted to approach 100% water, the amount of nitrogen would be less than one pound. That is if my math and conversion factors are correct.

[Matt]

I don't know either but its the right question - rian and snow cause a huge portion of nutrient loading in the bay. Depending on how you break out the numbers, you could probably attribute most of the nutrient problem to rain and such, with a growing and undesirable amount of it coming from impermeable surface like roads and houses, where the goal tends to be moving that water away as fast as possible, often running raw rainwater directly into tidal water.

[BILL H]

With all due respect Captain. There are too many unknowns. You need the water content of the snow and the concentration of nitrogen in that water. i assume you don't care about the nitrogen in the air spaces in the snow. The water content could vary from a very low percentage in new dry snow, to quite high for wet snow or snow compacted by something like a snowplow. I'll make a couple of guesses and provide a SWAG.

If the water concentration of nitrogen were .5 mg/l, which is not an unreasonable value, and the snow was compacted to be 50 percent water, the amount of nitrogen would be less than 1/2 pound. Even if the snow were heavily compacted to approach 100% water, the amount of nitrogen would be less than one pound. That is if my math and conversion factors are correct.

Captain, my answer above was vague enough to be correct, but after I went to bed, I couldn't sleep thinking that I had made a mistake in my calculations. It bothered me enough that I had to get out of bed and get out my pencil and calculator again. With the assumptions above, at 100% water, the nitrogen content would be 0.013 ounce (.00084 pound). I originally had computed 13 ounces, but the conversion from milligrams to pounds tripped me up because I was careless. At least I got a glass of milk and a slice of home-made sour cherry pie as my reward and slept better afterward.

[capt.george]

Thanks for your Efforts , Let me fill ya in on my thoughts --

--@---As a Farm boy in Va. we were Taught that Snow & Rain gathers Nitrogen out of the Air
--@ this Winter we in the Chesapeake Region ( Annapolis) within sight of the State house & the 5 star Hotel , where important Persons stay to meet Gov. , Senators & Delagates were a first hand Wittness to the DUMPING of Snow in our BAY ,, Melting water with water ---How Disgusting & Laughable this musta been for those whom know of the Above First Sentence --Where was our Agriculture Sect. Asleep ? Where was Mr. Baker ?, Where were the Saviors of the Bay & the Doom & Gloom Reporters & Shutterbugs ,AS some one said , we cleaded the lots, & streets of ALL our oil spills, animal Extrement, paper & Trash buried in the White Blanket , Am I Extreem ?, No just Pissed off ., that the ones that Scream foul all year were curled up next to a Fire & not down at Ego ally , For the "Great Dumping Party of 2010" ---nuff said --geo.

[Cabyn Fever]

Thanks for your Efforts , Let me fill ya in on my thoughts --

--@---As a Farm boy in Va. we were Taught that Snow & Rain gathers Nitrogen out of the Air
--@ this Winter we in the Chesapeake Region ( Annapolis) within sight of the State house & the 5 star Hotel , where important Persons stay to meet Gov. , Senators & Delagates were a first hand Wittness to the DUMPING of Snow in our BAY ,, Melting water with water ---How Disgusting & Laughable this musta been for those whom know of the Above First Sentence --Where was our Agriculture Sect. Asleep ? Where was Mr. Baker ?, Where were the Saviors of the Bay & the Doom & Gloom Reporters & Shutterbugs ,AS some one said , we cleaded the lots, & streets of ALL our oil spills, animal Extrement, paper & Trash buried in the White Blanket , Am I Extreem ?, No just Pissed off ., that the ones that Scream foul all year were curled up next to a Fire & not down at Ego ally , For the "Great Dumping Party of 2010" ---nuff said --geo.

If the snow were left to melt naturally, the same amount would end up in the bay from the run off.

[capt.george]

---How about the other Polluants

[Cabyn Fever]

---How about the other Polluants

Do you mean trash that may have been scooped up also or other "pollutants" that are dissolved in the moisture that made up the snow? Like nitrogen which makes up over 78% of the air we breathe, anything dissolved in the moisture that makes up snow stays with it when it melts and will eventually make its way to the bay in run off.

I don't recall which one but, an environmental group did bring this up when it was occurring and it was covered by the news media, they ended up going home with their tails between their legs once they understood this.

[Alley Cat]

I would be more concerned about the chemicals they dump on the roads that quickly end up in the storm drains.

[capt.george]

My Devils Advocate Tail is Fully tucked Away --geo.