Form Approved
REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE
OMB No. 0704-0188
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1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank)
2. REPORT DATE
3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED
April 1996
4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE
5. FUNDING NUMBERS
U.S. Army River Confluence
Dusting River Ice with Leaf Mulch to Aid in Ice Deterioration
Ice Program
Work Unit: 32972
6. AUTHORS
Robert B. Haehnel, Charles H. Clark, and Susan Taylor
7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)
8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
REPORT NUMBER
Special Report 96-7
U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
72 Lyme Road
Hanover, N.H. 03755-1290
9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)
10. SPONSORING/MONITORING
AGENCY REPORT NUMBER
Office of the Chief of Engineers
Washington, D.C. 20314-1000
11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
12a. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Available from NTIS, Springfield, Virginia 22161
13. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words)
In an effort to find a low cost means of reducing ice jams on small rivers in New England, dusting with organic
matter was field tested during the spring of 1993 and 1994. Test squares on a pond located at CRREL in Hanover,
New Hampshire, were dusted with several materials to evaluate their effectiveness in accelerating snow melting
and ice deterioration. Leaf mulch was included in the materials tested because, unlike other materials used in the
past to weaken ice (e.g., fly ash or coal slag), leaves are naturally found in rivers and should not adversely affect
aquatic organisms when applied in small quantities. It was found from these tests that the leaves perform about the
same as the traditionally used dusting materials. To transfer what was learned at the pond tests to a field applica-
tion, two rivers in Vermont, with a known history of ice jams, were dusted using leaf mulch during the spring of
1994. Since these sites were located on narrow rivers that wind through highly populated areas, aerial dusting was
not possible. For these sites we used a hydroseeder to spread the leaves on the ice. Application of leaf mulch with
a hydroseeder was found to be an efficient method of putting the leaves on the ice. After the rivers were dusted we
had a heavy snowfall, and were not able to determine the effectiveness of the leaf mulch in melting the ice. Obser-
vations suggest, however, that the leaf mulch helped melt the overlying snow. More work is needed to determine
the effectiveness of leaf mulch to weaken ice and how much ice weakening is necessary to reduce the severity of ice
jams.
14. SUBJECT TERMS
15. NUMBER OF PAGES
Dusting
Leaf mulch
24
Hydroseeder
Snowmelt
16. PRICE CODE
Ice weakening
17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
18. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
19. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
20. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT
OF REPORT
OF THIS PAGE
OF ABSTRACT
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
UL
Standard Form 298 (Rev. 2-89)
NSN 7540-01-280-5500
Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39-18
298-102
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