News

A salty balance: Road safety vs the environment | The Star

One of the most harmful things about winter is the white stuff that covers our roads and sidewalks. We’re not talking about snow, but rather the road salt that is used whenever snow falls on our roads.

Each year the City of Toronto lays down up to 150,000 tonnes of salt on its approximately 5,100 kilometres of roads. It’s used to control snow and ice so that driving, walking and getting around in general can be safer.

Salt is popular with municipalities and contractors because it’s cheap and easy to distribute. But, where road salt is concerned, there is plenty to worry about. One problem is that it doesn’t always work. Salt is used to lower the freezing point of water to make it harder for ice to form, but it only works when temperatures are above -7 C. When temperatures fall below that, the city applies brine – a salt and water mixture – ahead of the snowfall, in order to restrict the ability of water and snow on roads to freeze.

Road salt is also harmful to the environment. In 2001, Environment Canada published the results of a five-year assessment on the impacts of road salts, noting it had an adverse effect on freshwater ecosystems, soil, vegetation and wildlife. In March 2021, the University of Toronto published the results of a study that looked at the impact of road salt on aquatic habitat in the city’s rivers. It found that salt run-off in the spring was causing negative impacts well into the summer.

“Of the samples we took from four GTA rivers and creeks during the summer, we found that nearly 90 per cent exceeded federal guidelines for long-term exposure of aquatic life to chloride,” said Donald Jackson, a professor of aquatic ecology in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Similar findings across the southern Great Lakes have been found by WWF Canada. Its studies have revealed that many urban and rural waterways in southern Ontario are showing record high chloride levels. Some are even as salty as the ocean in the winter, according to WWF’s data.

“Ontario is over-salting its parking lots, sidewalks and roadways,” said Elizabeth Hendriks, vice-president of freshwater with WWF Canada. “A small pill bottle or saltshaker is all that’s needed to melt the equivalent of a city sidewalk slab.”

Beyond environmental issues, road salt is corrosive and can damage vehicles, stains shoes and clothing, and can damage lawns during the spring melt.

The drawbacks of road salt are compelling municipalities and contractors to find ways to minimize its use. Some municipalities are also experimenting with alternative products to see if salt can be replaced altogether. In 2016, the City of Toronto produced a Salt Management Plan, which included a list of ways the use of salt can be reduced. Examples include improved training of operators and fitting more trucks with anti-icing and pre-wetting equipment.

In an email, Hakeem Muhammad, transportation spokesperson for the city, said road salt continues to be the best and most effective way to keep roads safe in winter weather. However, the city is aware its use is associated with negative environment impacts. City staff work to reduce those impacts as much as possible by actively managing salt use, Muhammad said, adding it aims for a 10 to 15 per cent reduction by pre-wetting the salt so less is required.

“Salt spreaders are calibrated at the beginning of each winter season and operators are being continuously trained,” Muhammad said. “New equipment will be purchased as part of the new winter services contracts starting in the fall of 2022, which will be more efficient in their salt usage.”

For private contractors, best practices for salt management can be learned through Smart About Salt, a not-for-profit agency. Its online training and certification programs provide advice on how to minimize the use of salt to save money and help the environment at the same time.

Alternatives to road salt exist and continue to be explored. The Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program – a collaboration between the Credit Valley, Lake Simcoe region and Toronto region conservation authorities — has conducted research on various alternatives. These can be broken down into three categories: chloride de-icers, acetate de-icers, and agricultural byproducts (organics). The research concluded that all the alternatives have drawbacks, including higher prices, specific application requirements, lack of effectiveness and associated environmental issues.

A 2014 study by the University of Waterloo, in partnership with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, looked at organic and semi-organic alternatives. The study determined that organic anti-icers had lower chloride and sodium levels, but contained higher levels of nutrients and organic carbon. When temperatures drop below -20 C, Toronto spreaders use a de-icer made from a mixture of sugar beet molasses and (much less) salt. In Wisconsin, the salty brine from making mozzarella cheese has been used for several years and has had positive effects.

Another alternative are traction agents. Sand is often used this way in rural areas where salt isn’t effective. There are also organic traction agents, such as EcoTraction, a product derived from volcanic rock. It can be used on its own by homeowners or mixed in with de-icers and spread on roads or parking lots by municipalities and contractors.

Reduce your use of road salt this winter and help protect our drinking water | kawarthaNOW

This winter has been great for snow. The snow makes the landscape look lovely this time of year, and many winter enthusiasts are happy to hit the ski slopes and trails. That said, getting around can be stressful in snowy and icy conditions.

Unfortunately, fluctuating temperatures along with an increase in freeze and thaw cycles because of climate change, leave us with sheets of ice hiding between layers of snow. The slush that comes along with intermittent rain freezes into thick, icy mounds making walkways challenging to navigate and roads, sidewalks, and driveways deceptively slippery.

Salt is commonly used for reducing the amount of ice around homes, on sidewalks, and on many commercial properties. Salt is relatively inexpensive, and it melts ice quickly making it easier to clear, but there are many reasons to re-think salt use around your home or business.

Before you bring out the salt, consider its impact on your property, your pets, your drinking water, and the watershed environment.

Salt is corrosive and can cause damage to vehicles and bikes. It is easily tracked inside on the treads of boots causing damage to footwear, carpets, rugs, and flooring. If you have pets, salt can irritate paws and it can be harmful if ingested. Salt is also not effective when temperatures dip below -10°C; sand provides traction at any temperature.

Salt impacts your gardens too. It can raise the pH of your soil and make it less fertile. The health of trees, shrubs, grasses, and other plants that line salted driveways and walkways can deteriorate if the concentration of salt becomes too high. Root systems are easily damaged by salt, making uptake of water difficult. The drought-like conditions created by excess salt can cause plants to dry out.

Spreading salt on the sidewalk can have a negative effect on your property, but it is also important to recognize that its impacts extend beyond your yard. Salt can negatively impact the quality of groundwater and surface waters that we rely on for drinking water.

Salt dissolves in water, which means that it is easily carried into groundwater, and once the spring thaw and April showers hit, dissolved salt runs off into storm sewers which drain directly into local waterways affecting plants and animals in our rivers, streams, and lakes.

This is concerning when you start to think about the amount of salt used on roads, driveways and sidewalks over the winter. Approximately five million tonnes of salt are applied to roads in Canada each year and Ontario municipalities alone use more than 100,000 tonnes every year.

Undoubtedly, this has reduced accidents and injuries associated with icy winter conditions but, unfortunately, this comes with a cost to the environment.

“All that salt eventually enters local waterways and the groundwater that we rely on for our drinking water,” explains Terri Cox, risk management official for the Otonabee-Peterborough Source Protection Area. “Ontario’s Clean Water Act identifies road salt use as a drinking water threat, and our local policies contained in the Trent Source Protection Plan are in place to help to protect the quality of our drinking water sources by eliminating excessive salt use.”

The impacts of salt on groundwater and surface waters are well documented. Thankfully, there are many alternative products on the market that work much like salt without the negative environmental impacts.

On a large scale, many municipalities are opting for alternatives when de-icing roadways. In 2021, the City of Peterborough started using a salt brine (water and salt mixture) on roads to reduce their overall salt usage. Toronto, London and Huron County and the Niagara Region in Ontario along with several cities in Quebec use beet juice/salt brine as an alternative to prevent ice from forming on roads.

The brine solution is more expensive, but has less negative impact on the environment and is effective when temperatures dip to as low as -32°C, compared to salt which doesn’t melt ice below -10°C.

Around your home there are alternatives to salt that can help to improve slippery conditions. Sand provides traction at any temperature and salt/sand mixes, non-clumping kitty litter, and fireplace ashes are also great substitutes. Just be sure not to track them indoors where they can make a mess.

Whatever you are spreading at home or work, a little will go a long way. Use any de-icing product sparingly and give it time to work.

“A 10-kilogram bag of salt from the hardware or grocery store is enough to cover an NHL-sized ice rink,” Cox says. “One tablespoon of salt is enough to melt one square metre of ice. A little goes a long way.”

Also be sure to shovel first so you can use less, saving money and protecting the environment. Ensure your downspouts are directed away from paths and driveways to prevent puddles and subsequent ice spots from forming.

Enjoy the beauty of winter and — whether you’re on the road, the trail, the sidewalk, or the front stoop — slow down and take time to consider the best solutions for winter snow and ice removal that safeguard our gardens, help wildlife, and protect our water quality.

For more information about how to protect drinking water sources during winter, visit otonabeeconservation.com.

GreenUP: Protecting Peterborough’s water sources in winter | ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

This winter has been great for snow. The snow makes the landscape look lovely this time of year, and many winter enthusiasts are happy to hit the ski slopes and trails.

That said, getting around can be stressful in snowy and icy conditions.

Unfortunately, fluctuating temperatures along with an increase in freeze and thaw cycles because of climate change, leave us with sheets of ice hiding between layers of snow. The slush that comes along with intermittent rain freezes into thick, icy mounds making walkways challenging to navigate and roads, sidewalks, and driveways deceptively slippery.

Salt is commonly used for reducing the amount of ice around homes, on sidewalks, and on many commercial properties. Salt is relatively inexpensive, and it melts ice quickly making it easier to clear, but there are many reasons to rethink salt use around your home or business.

Before you bring out the salt, consider its impact on your property, your pets, your drinking water, and the watershed environment.

Salt is corrosive and can cause damage to vehicles and bikes. It is easily tracked inside on the treads of boots causing damage to footwear, carpets, rugs, and flooring. If you have pets, salt can irritate paws and it can be harmful if ingested. Salt is also not effective when temperatures dip below -10 Celsius; sand provides traction at any temperature.

Salt impacts your gardens, too. It can raise the pH of your soil and make it less fertile. The health of trees, shrubs, grasses, and other plants that line salted driveways and walkways can deteriorate if the concentration of salt becomes too high. Root systems are easily damaged by salt, making uptake of water difficult. The drought-like conditions created by excess salt can cause plants to dry out.

Spreading salt on the sidewalk can have a negative effect on your property, but it is also important to recognize that its impacts extend beyond your yard. Salt can negatively impact the quality of groundwater and surface waters that we rely on for drinking water. Salt dissolves in water, which means that it is easily carried into groundwater, and once the spring thaw and April showers hit, dissolved salt runs off into storm sewers which drain directly into local waterways affecting plants and animals in our rivers, streams, and lakes.

This is concerning when you start to think about the amount of salt used on roads, driveways and sidewalks over the winter. Approximately five million tonnes of salt are applied to roads in Canada each year and Ontario municipalities alone use more than 100,000 tonnes every year. Undoubtedly, this has reduced accidents and injuries associated with icy winter conditions but unfortunately, this comes with a cost to the environment.

“All that salt eventually enters local waterways and the groundwater that we rely on for our drinking water,” explains Terri Cox, risk management official for the Otonabee-Peterborough Source Protection Area, “Ontario’s Clean Water Act identifies road salt use as a drinking water threat and our local policies contained in the Trent Source Protection Plan are in place to help to protect the quality of our drinking water sources by eliminating excessive salt use.”

The impacts of salt on groundwater and surface waters are well documented. Thankfully, there are many alternative products on the market that work much like salt without the negative environmental impacts.

On a large scale, many municipalities are opting for alternatives when de-icing roadways. In 2021, the City of Peterborough started using a salt brine (water and salt mixture) on roads to reduce their overall salt usage. Toronto, London and Huron County and the Niagara Region in Ontario along with several cities in Quebec use beet juice/salt brine as an alternative to prevent ice from forming on roads. The brine solution is more expensive, but has less negative impact on the environment and is effective when temperatures dip to as low as -32°C, compared to salt which doesn’t melt ice below -10°C.

Around your home there are alternatives to salt that can help to improve slippery conditions. Sand provides traction at any temperature and salt/sand mixes, non-clumping cat litter and fireplace ashes are also great substitutes. Just be sure not to track them indoors where they can make a mess.

Whatever you are spreading at home or work, a little will go a long way. Use any de-icing product sparingly and give it time to work.

“A 10 kg bag of salt from the hardware or grocery store is enough to cover an NHL sized ice rink,” continues Cox. “One tablespoon of salt is enough to melt one square metre of ice. A little goes a long way.”

Also, be sure to shovel first, so you can use less, saving money and protecting the environment. Ensure your downspouts are directed away from paths and driveways to prevent puddles and subsequent ice spots from forming.

Enjoy the beauty of winter and whether you’re on the road, the trail, the sidewalk, or the front stoop, slow down and take time to consider the best solutions for winter snow and ice removal that safeguard our gardens, help wildlife, and protect our water quality.

For more information about how to protect drinking water sources during winter visit otonabeeconservation.com.

A Grand Rapids lake and the consequences of Michigan’s road salt addiction | Bridge Michigan

On the surface, Church Lake looks like a shining example of the glacier-carved lakes that are Michigan’s pride, its clear shallows teeming with heron, turtles, frogs and fish.

“It’s what’s lurking underneath that’s the issue,” said Ellen Foley, a graduate researcher studying the lake’s chemistry.

Meters beneath its vibrant surface, Church Lake is a dead zone — a chemical soup of phosphorus and road salt has left the water toxic and oxygen-deprived.

The Grand Rapids lake is a case study in how routine facets of modern Michigan life, such as salting roads, fertilizing lawns, and flushing toilets, have quietly tainted water from the Upper Peninsula to the state’s southern border.

Chloride, a component of road salt, is present in Church Lake at levels more than double the amount state officials say is dangerous to aquatic life. 

Levels of phosphorus — a life-sustaining nutrient that becomes dangerous when it gets too concentrated — are even more shocking: Lakes are considered eutrophic, or high in nutrients, at about 20 to 30 parts-per-billion. Church Lake’s salt problem has trapped phosphorus in the lake, producing levels exceeding 6,000 parts-per-billion.

Foley and other researchers at Grand Valley State University’s Robert B. Annis Water Research Institute detected the shocking pollution after lakeside residents, concerned about runoff of road salt from a nearby highway and surrounding developments, commissioned a study of the lake’s chemistry.

Early results show “a biological ticking time bomb,” Foley said. “We don’t know what the breaking point is.”

Excess nutrients rob lakes of oxygen, causing fish to suffocate. When combined with sunlight and warmth, they can cause plants and algae to grow out of control, including the toxic cyanobacteria that can sicken humans and wildlife. Salt, meanwhile, harms freshwater organisms, stunting their development. High concentrations can kill them outright.

For now, those threats are trapped at the bottom of the lake, out of sight. The salt makes the deep water too heavy to mix with water near the surface.

But if even a portion of the bottom water is disturbed, reaching the surface where it could stimulate plant growth, toxic algae blooms could follow.

And the lake’s inability to mix has caused problems of its own. Seasonal water “turnover,” triggered by changing water temperatures, is a staple of healthy Michigan lakes that distributes oxygen and nutrients through the water column. 

Robbed of this process, Church Lake’s deep water has “no oxygen whatsoever,” Foley said.

A ‘ubiquitous’ problem

Church Lake, a 20-acre private kettle lake in an affluent area of Grand Rapids, sits within throwing distance of a major thoroughfare: Michigan Highway 44, also known as East Beltline Avenue, a trunkline highway that shuttles 24,000 vehicles daily along Grand Rapid’s east end. The area has seen more development in recent years, with new houses and businesses cropping up nearby.

When Laurie and Don Gardner moved to the lake in 1971, the Beltline was “a two-lane scenic drive,” Laurie said. The development in decades since, she said, has been “mind-boggling.”

Residents noticed how during a snowmelt or after a rainfall, murky water would flow out of the drain that collects water from the roadway and feeds it into Church Lake. After an initial study raised alarm about salt and phosphorus, the GVSU team began their work in 2020, leading to new revelations about the extent of pollution.

Lakeside residents say they’re frustrated by a problem that is not of their making. They maintain vegetation buffers along their property to reduce runoff and erosion into the lake. They don’t fertilize their lawns. Motor boats are banned. And unlike some Michigan lakes plagued by a proliferation of leaky septic systems, most Church Lake residents have switched to city water.

“We keep control from our entrance points,” said resident Bob Woodhouse, 67.

Researchers aren’t sure where the phosphorus originated. But they believe it has accumulated to alarming levels because the salt buildup stopped the seasonal mixing that would have otherwise allowed plants to gradually take up the nutrients. 

The source of the salt problem, researchers say, is far clearer: It’s pouring off East Beltline Avenue. When snow melts off the road in large quantities, chloride levels in the drain that feeds Church Lake can spike as high as 1,000 parts-per-million.=

“That’s close to brackish water at that point,” Foley said.

Church Lake is not unique, though it may be a particularly extreme case.

Alan Steinman, the Allen and Helen Hunting Director of the GVSU research institute behind the study, called the lake “a harbinger of what's to come in the future” if road salt use continues unabated.

“This is a problem that is ubiquitous, it's growing, and it needs to be addressed,” Steinman said. “And right now, because (the impact on water quality) is out of sight, it’s out of mind.”

Kevin Goodwin, an aquatic biologist with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE), said Church Lake’s one-two punch of both salt and nutrient pollution appears to be uncommon. But many Michigan waterways suffer from one of the two.

As Bridge reported last month, new research reveals the region’s reliance on rock salt is even salinating Lake Michigan, a massive water body known for being “unsalted and shark-free.” Toxic algae blooms caused by nutrient overgrowth are a growing problem across the Great Lakes region, too.

But salt is an abundant and effective means of keeping drivers safe on winter roads. One study found it reduces collisions by up to 85 percent. Those benefits, along with a lack of viable alternatives, have made it difficult to rein in salt use, which has tripled nationwide since the 1970s.

In 2019, EGLE established water quality values for chloride, a step toward better monitoring and fixing salt pollution in Michigan's lakes and rivers. The state does not limit how much salt can exit storm drains into waterways, but it is pushing government agencies to adopt “best management practices,” such as recalibrating salt trucks and conducting outreach to the public in hopes of reducing salt use.

The Kent County Road Commission, which maintains East Beltline Avenue through a contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation, has reduced salt use by about 15 percent in the past decade, according to numbers provided by the commission’s spokesperson. 

And county road officials continue searching for ways to ration salt, said Jerry Byrne, the road commission’s deputy managing director of operations.

“But nobody wants to talk about it on a snow day,” Byrne said. And least of all on roads as heavily-traveled as East Beltline Avenue.

“Until the public changes their perceptions and their expectations,” of driving on bare asphalt just hours after a snowstorm, Byrne said, “road authorities can't by themselves greatly reduce the amount of de-icing chemicals that go down.”

And salt applied by public road crews isn’t the only culprit in the lake’s salt problem, he noted. Increased development has created more parking lots, driveways and sidewalks that are often heavily-salted.

Assuming the salt will keep flowing off Beltline, Church Lake residents are focused on how to address its impact on the lake. Options include everything from diverting runoff into a retention pond, to pumping the polluted bottom water out of the lake. 

Both would be expensive. And Foley noted that neither would address the root cause of a problem that isn’t confined to Church Lake.

“Unfortunately, it’s a human safety versus ecological health problem at this point,” she said. “The human safety part is going to win out until we find something that keeps us just as safe.”

Wisconsin DNR reminds people to reduce salt use in winter | Regional | hngnews.com

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Wisconsin Salt Wise invite the public to learn more about the impacts of road salt on the state’s drinking water, pets and freshwater ecosystems during Wisconsin Salt Awareness Week, Jan. 24-28, 2022.

While salt keeps Wisconsin roads safe during winter, using more salt than needed comes at a price. In Wisconsin and much of the U.S., chlorides from salt are infiltrating lakes, streams and groundwater. According to Wisconsin Salt Wise, one teaspoon of salt is all it takes to make five gallons of water toxic for freshwater organisms.

The DNR measures chloride levels in Wisconsin rivers over time, monitoring cumulative chloride loading results at 26 of the state’s largest river systems. Recent studies have shown a steep increase in chloride loads. In the early 2000s, the DNR measured about 600,000 tons of chlorides annually. By 2018, that number increased to nearly 800,000 tons per year. Over 40 lakes and streams in Wisconsin have been designated as impaired by high salt concentrations.

These increased chloride loads are partly due to road salting, but chlorides also enter Wisconsin waters because of water softeners and fertilizers. Find out if your softener is salt-wise with this diagnostic tool.

Increased chloride levels have significant impacts on our daily lives, including environmental and economic effects. Nationwide, winter salt causes $5 billion in damage to infrastructure each year, causing corrosion of bridges, roads and other infrastructure. Road salt can also impact pets by causing irritated paws or other health concerns if ingested.

Salt tips for Wisconsin residents

Reducing salt use is key to decreasing chloride loads. Follow these steps to right-size your salt use:

• Shovel: Clear walkways and other areas before the snow turns to ice. The more snow removed manually, the less salt you will need and the more effective it will be.

• Scatter: When using salt, scatter it so that there is space between the grains. A 12-ounce coffee mug of salt is enough to treat an entire 20-foot driveway or 10 sidewalk squares.

• Switch: Salt won’t work when pavement temperatures drop below 15 degrees. Switch to sand for traction or a different ice melter that works at lower temperatures.

Statewide reduction efforts

The DNR works to reduce chlorides at the source through permitting programs for municipalities and industries. These measures include tuning up or replacing water softeners, identifying significant chloride contributors and finding reductions, process efficiencies or improvements and instituting sewer use ordinances.

Additionally, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation works with Wisconsin counties to reduce road salt application using brine and pre-wetting road surfaces, both of which significantly reduce salt use.

For more information on the DNR’s efforts to monitor chlorides and reduce their effects, visit the DNR’s Salt and Storm Water website.

The road salt that makes winter driving safer may be killing salmon (burnabybeacon.com)

This winter has seen more snowfall in the Lower Mainland than just about any other in recent memory.

And with that snowfall comes the regular side-effects—heated debates over shovelling sidewalks vs bike lanes; bent fenders; slips; falls; gleeful children tobogganing.

But one important side-effect of the snow that often goes unnoticed—at least to the average person—is the salt that is spread by governments and property owners to lower the melting point of snow on roads and sidewalks.

Good for driving, bad for fish

While the practice improves road safety, it has negative effects on the local ecology. After the snow melts away, the salt may be absorbed into the ground or washed into storm sewers.

Atop Burnaby Mountain, that groundwater is the source for streams like Stoney Creek, while many storm sewers also flow into local streams.

And that may hold back decades of conservation work that has been done on streams like Stoney Creek.

A local salt monitoring program is aiming to change that and to achieve stricter regulations on the application of road salt to deal with snow.

In fact, Alan James, a member of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee, would like to see it eventually phased out altogether.

James, a retired geophysicist and computer scientist, is a volunteer with the committee and has been keeping an eye on the road salt issue since 2008.

For the majority of that time, the work has included attending monitoring equipment in Stoney Creek to download data. But in the last year or so, he’s gotten his hands on something a bit more modern.

In an application on his phone, James can view real-time data from the streams, thanks to new, automated loggers that regularly upload data via cellular signals to the app. At any given moment, James can open his phone and see how much chloride is in the creek.

Correlation or causation?

In an interview about a year ago, James said he believed there was a correlation between road salt and chloride contamination of local streams, but he wasn’t particularly comfortable saying there was a causal relationship.

But over the past year, he has become more and more convinced.

“I’m more comfortable saying it’s causal, but it’s still not proven. The only way to do that would be to have somebody actually [record] the time that the truck went by the creek and then compare it to the time that they came,” James said in an interview this week.

Still, the correlation between the two is notable. On the SCEC website, graphs of data from three loggers—one in Stoney Creek, one at Cariboo Dam, and one in Eagle Creek—show spikes in chloride levels coinciding with temperatures dropping below 0C, when road salt may have been applied.

And the spikes are far from subtle. In many cases, they resemble spears jutting upwards, out of otherwise relatively stable lines.

In Stoney Creek’s Tributary 3A, the chloride levels hold steady under 100mg/L for weeks in November and early December before shooting suddenly to nearly 1,000mg/L around Dec 6, the first recorded contamination of the season.

The chloride levels then drop off nearly as suddenly as they rose, returning to the ambient chloride levels.

Eagle Creek similarly saw levels rise from the 100-250mg/L range to close to 1,000mg/L in time with temperatures dipping below freezing.

Road salt is toxic

At around the same time as the automated loggers were brought in, James contacted Chris Wood, an adjunct professor of zoology at UBC, along with a number of other UBC faculty members.

Wood specifically studies toxicology and its effects on aquatic animals, like fish, and James sought his expert advice on a salt monitoring program.

Scientific research on chloride-contaminated streams has “really exploded in the last five years,” Wood said, particularly with research from the US and Europe, as well as some studies in Eastern Canada.

“We call it, now, the salinization syndrome, which is associated with excessive application of salt,” Wood said. “What I’m reading is that the effects are really devastating.”

In fact, the federal government declared road salt to be a toxic substance as far back as 1999.

BC government guidelines put the upper limit for prolonged exposure to chloride at 150mg/L, while the short-term exposure shouldn’t exceed 600mg/L. That’s well below the near-1,000mg/L levels being reached in Burnaby.

And the effects of road salt and chloride contamination can be serious. One 2018 study noted Atlantic salmon alevins—that is, freshly hatched salmon—saw “significantly higher” mortality rates when tested with concentrations of 100-1,000mg/L.

James said salt-contaminated creeks have also been shown to cause abnormalities in development and even hemorrhaging in alevins’ yolk sacs just after hatching.

And there may even be an effect on benthic invertebrates, the small animals young salmon feed on before they head to the ocean.

Struggling streams

Part of the importance of the issue is that salmon returns have been diminishing for decades, although streamkeeper organizations like SCEC have managed to boost some local populations over the years.

“Pacific salmon are under incredible pressures, and this is just one more very serious load on them in urbanized areas,” Wood said.

And Stoney Creek, despite the efforts of streamkeepers, has seen its share of challenges, from sewage contamination to an unknown contaminant that killed hundreds of fish in the fall.

After some conversation about the monitoring project, James and Wood got to wondering whether the problem would be more widespread than just in Stoney Creek.

“We decided, in fact, that it was worth trying to raise funding for a more ambitious project, not just for Stoney Creek, but for many other local salmon spawning streams,” Wood said.

James reached out to streamkeeper organizations throughout the Lower Mainland to gauge interest in participating in the program—Wood said the hope is to get monitors into 30 different streams.

So far, Wood said about 15 local streamkeeper organizations throughout the region have signed onto the project if it goes ahead.

James said that includes organizations in Surrey and even as far out as Chilliwack.

Getting universities involved

In order to fund the five-year project, the group is seeking close to $600,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, a funding arm of the federal government.

Much of that money would be going toward training students, with three post-secondary schools—UBC, BCIT, and SFU—signed on to the project, including research projects from PhD students and masters students.

“Each of the students would have their individual projects, which would either be the project or the thesis which would help them earn their degree,” Wood said.

Among the projects being looked at are a proposed UBC PhD thesis looking at the effects of salt on the physiology of coho and chum salmon. That would particularly focus on early-life development and would span four-and-a-half years for that student.

A pair of masters students are looking to do offshoot projects that would focus on specific aspects of the amount of salt in the water and fish development.

SFU students are expecting to look at the effects of road salt on the young salmons’ food source, the insect larvae and benthic invertebrates.

BCIT students, meanwhile, will be doing shorter projects over three or four months that would get into some of the more granular details.

If the project doesn’t get the funding they’re seeking from the research council, Wood said all hope is not lost. The Pacific Sciences Enterprise Centre—part of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans—has been “very generous with the time of one of their employees,” he said.

And if the funding from the research council falls through, Wood said the group will seek funding straight from the source.

The positive impact of citizen science

On the West Coast, the issue often goes under the radar because the Lower Mainland only sees snow a couple of times per year—usually.

But since he started on it in 2008, James said he’s happy to have seen his SCEC work on road salts incur changes at SFU. But in the past 14 years, the federal government has still failed to adequately regulate the use of road salt, he said.

Wood said the work being done by citizen scientists like James has had a major effect on environmental issues.

“I think in general, governments, regulatory bodies are becoming much more receptive to what I would call bottom-up science and bottom-up concern about environmental issues,” Wood said.

“I think that the sort of activism Alan in particular, and many of his colleagues, [has] shown is great. I wouldn’t be involved in it myself, unless he reached out to me and asked for a little bit more scientific expertise.”

‘Use less salt’

Research has generally shown road salt to be detrimental to local streams, and governments even acknowledge that. But so far, James said, they haven’t taken adequate action.

Action on reducing or eliminating salt could also help beyond the streams—salt also has a damaging effect on the roads it’s spread on and on the cars that drive over it.

And there are alternatives to salt. Calgary, for instance, has had a successful run using beet juice combined with a brine.

But at the very least, James and Wood said, there needs to be work done to reduce the amount of salt that is used. They said people frequently use far more than is necessary.

“I’m hoping that a scientific study will be sufficient to get them to make salt regulated in the same way that they regulate pesticides like roundup. The operators need to have training and certification, and right now it’s a free-for-all,” James said.

“There are lots of techniques that can be used, and most of them are: use less salt.”

The sting of salt, despite a warmer winter in Central Canada | The Star

Road salt is toxic. “Environment Canada has deemed road salt a hazardous substance,” says Lee Gould, executive director of the not-for-profit organization Smart About Salt Council.

Yet salt also helps create a safer environment for driving and walking in slipper winter conditions. Therein lies the rub.

Gould tells us that our fresh waterways around Toronto are loaded with the stuff. A few years ago, Atlantic saltwater-loving East Coast crabs were found in the Humber River. “Often our local fresh waterways contain more salt than naturally salty oceans,” he said.

The Smart About Salt Council is dedicated to the responsible use of salt. You have likely seen piles of the stuff accumulate on outdoor steps, sidewalks, at a curb’s edge or at the entrance to a store. We crunch through rock salt and our winter footwear pays the price. Salt is a painful problem for GTA dogs and their sensitive paws. Metal car bodies suffer from the corrosive nature of road salt as do metal stair rails and pillars, and even concrete building foundations.

So, what to do? “From a safety perspective, homeowners should demand that those who are hired to undertake snow and ice removal are knowledgeable,” suggest Gould. “It’s an irony that we wouldn’t hire an untrained (andand uncertified) electrician, but we don’t demand the same of those that are striving to keep facilities and businesses open, to protect some of our most vulnerable people, like seniors, and those utilizing health care facilities, schools, etc.”

He advises clearing snow and slush before applying salt, or a salt substitute. When you do put it down, only use it on a band of space on your walkway that is wide enough to walk on. Avoid applying salt to the margins of a hard surface, since it will run off as a salt/brine solution when it melts and harm plants, grass, hedges and trees.

Salt substitutes have been around for a long time and are considered more friendly to plants, but most contain chloride. Though less toxic than salt, manufacturing chloride also produces nitrogen oxide, as does fertilizer production.

Natural alternatives to salt include sand, sawdust, wood ash, sugar beet juice, kitty litter and dry coffee grounds.

The Smart About Salt Council has an excellent website — smartaboutsalt.com — that is full of practical suggestions relating to the use of salt and also suggests substitutes.

So far this winter, the use of road salt is down from previous years in Central Canada since — until the start of this past week! — we’ve enjoyed a mostly mild and snowless season. It’s been good for getting out and about.

However, your garden plants may respond to our warmer temperatures and lack of snow in a variety of ways.

The bad news: Some insects that are marginally hardy may survive the winter in fine shape. (Hello, Japanese beetle, you pain in the neck!) Plant diseases are generally not affected by cold temperatures, but moisture levels do affect them. More on that later this season.

Some spring bulbs may sprout through the surface of the soil prematurely, especially where sun shines on the south or west side of a building, radiating heat that can force crocus, tulips, and the like to start growing early. For the most part, this is not a problem since spring-flowering bulbs have a natural antifreeze — unless flower buds form and we then get a cold snap below -8C.

The good news: Marginally winter-hardy plants that we grow in our gardens will likely head into spring with flying colours. In the GTA, these may include rhododendrons, peach trees some Japanese maples, lavender and some Mediterranean herbs.

At this point in the season, there is no measurable risk to a cold snap of -20C for a few days. But lower temperatures than that might kill off or create die-back on some plants.

We will know more come April. Stay tuned — and consider your salt intake.

By a unanimous vote of 201-0, the Pennsylvania House or Representatives has forwarded the ASCA’s Model Legislation, the Snow Removal Limited Liability Act, House Bill 1665, on to the state senate where it has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee. This is a huge step for this important legislation, said Pa. State Representative Chris Quinn, the bill’s sponsor. “These unfair clauses are often used by many big box retail chains to force small business owners (snow contractors) to assume liability, which should be borne by the property owner.” Most snow removal contractors are not required to remove snow until there are 2 inches of snowfall. This “trigger” varies. Standard hold-harmless provisions, typically used by larger retail chains, force contractors to assume liability even though they are under no contractual obligation to remove snow and may not even have been on the premises. “These unfair contracts shift responsibility for damages which should be borne by the property owner,” added Quinn. “Because this unfair language often pits the client and contractor against each other, insurance carriers are forced to charge smaller contractors for two separate defense lawyers. “Exponentially increased liability insurance rates are the net effect of these hold-harmless agreements on small business owners who are most typically proprietors of snow removal businesses. The increased cost of doing business for these small business owners is ultimately passed on to the customer, which is bad for all Pennsylvanians,” he said. ASCA Executive Director Kevin Gilbride added, “The ASCA and Pennsylvania members have been working diligently for a number of years to get this legislation passed.  We are excited about this huge accomplishment and expect things move more quickly with the dominant vote the bill received in the house.” Gilbride encourages all Pennsylvania contractors to reach out their Senator ASAP and put their support behind the bill.   Pennsylvania snow and ice professionals can locate their state senator HERE.  Once on their page, click the white envelope under their picture to send them an email. Then copy and paste this message: House Bill 1665 just passes the state’s House of Representatives with a vote of 201-0.  This legislation will go a long way in making Pennsylvania safer for its citizens in the winter.  It will also benefit snow and ice management companies in reigning in skyrocketing insurance rates.  This legislation does not eliminate liability for snow and ice management companies, it simply places liability where it should be.  Professional snow and ice management companies are still liable if they do a poor job.  They are just not liable when they are not contractually obligated to service a property.  Please support this bill when it is presented in the Senate. The ASCA will continue to push hard to get this legislation passed soon.

Are homeowners liable for slips on icy sidewalks? B.C.'s top court gave its final word on the matter last year | CBC News

If you're crafting a legal strategy to ruin the homeowner whose unshovelled sidewalk led to your broken limb during B.C.'s latest snowmageddon, spare a thought for Darwin Der.

The Burnaby man went all the way to B.C.'s Court of Appeal with a lawsuit against a couple he blamed for his slip on the pavement out front of their house — only to have the province's top court issue the final word last year on a classic Canadian legal conundrum.

The appeal court judges found once and for all that property owners do not owe a "general duty of care to take reasonable care with respect to the removal of snow and ice from sidewalks adjacent to their property."

It was a decision grounded in precedent established by wounded pedestrians from coast to coast to coast — one that harkens back to a question that has plagued judges for decades: What exactly does being a good neighbour mean?

"Ninety years ago, our law became that one has a duty to look after their neighbour," says Ryan Dalziel, the lawyer who handled Der's challenge.

"When it comes to compliance with safety-based bylaws for clearing sidewalks in front of your home, I say with all due respect to courts, judges and others of a different view, what is this if not taking care for one's neighbour?"

Der and his wife were walking home from a grocery store with a dozen eggs on Dec. 21, 2017, when the then-76-year-old slipped on the corner of the sidewalk outside of a home belonging to Ang Zhao and Quanqiu Huang.

According to an affidavit, Der's feet slid out from underneath him. 

"When I regained some level of awareness, I could feel pain in my shoulder, neck and back, and I could not move," the affidavit said.

Zhao and Huang moved into the home in front of the sidewalk on the day Der fell.

Zhao said he had shovelled the sidewalk in previous days in order to comply with the city's bylaws. And Huang claimed she salted the sidewalk in the morning to make it safer for the movers.

An accident reconstruction expert said the Lower Mainland cycle of freezing and thawing that followed likely left the pavement vulnerable to the kind of melting that later leads to black ice.

Der claimed the couple should have foreseen that the weather might turn the bare sidewalk into a skating rink.

The judge who heard the case in the lower court rejected Der's argument, pointing out that finding homeowners liable for injuries suffered because they did their civic duty the wrong way would mean  "property owners would have an incentive not to make any efforts to comply with snow removal bylaws."

In his appeal, Der argued that property owners should have a duty of care to the people walking past their homes.

Although dozens of judges have considered similar situations, the B.C. Appeal Court became the first to conduct a legal test specifically designed to test the limits of legal responsibility between individuals.

The ruling cites the so-called neighbour principle established in 1932 by the British House of Lords in what's widely known as the "snail in the bottle case" — because it began with a Scottish woman who sued when she was shocked and sickened after finding a decomposed snail at the bottom of her bottle of ginger beer.

"You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour," Lord James Atkin said at the time.

"Who, then, in law, is my neighbour? The answer seems to be persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question."

The B.C. Appeal Court judges found no reason to fault the widely cited logic of a judge who considered the "neighbour principle" in relation to snow clearing in 2000 in the case of a woman who fell on a sidewalk north of Toronto.

"It would stretch it too far if it was applied in the circumstances of this case. A homeowner has a duty to ensure that his or her own property is maintained in a reasonable condition so that persons entering the property are not injured," the judge in that case said.

"The snow and ice accumulating on public sidewalks and the potholes on the street in front of the house are the legal responsibility of the municipality, not the adjacent property owner."

Courts have found exceptions involving business owners who fail to clear a portion of the sidewalk that they effectively use as a corridor to usher customers into their stores. 

In that situation, the business becomes an occupier of the public space.

In 2017, Ontario's Court of Appeal found Starbucks liable for a slice of pavement directly adjacent to a patio entrance.

But B.C.'s Appeal Court judges found "the relationship between a pedestrian and residential property owner is not sufficiently close and direct to make it just and fair to impose a duty of care."

They found that homeowners are not like managers of cafes or restaurants who actively court customers to walk the sidewalks leading into their businesses.

The case was not appealed — meaning the nation's top court, the Supreme Court of Canada, will not have the chance to weigh in. 

Too Much Salt: Good for Winter Travel, but with Consequences for Environmental and Human Health | Mirage News

An overuse of road salt in the winter has potentially harmful effects for everything from wildlife to groundwater

The winter months can bring dicey travel conditions, but those can be made safer with shovels, plows, and deicers like road salts. For road salts, a little can go a long way in improving safety, but its use is not without consequences. Researchers from the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are working to better understand the numerous environmental impacts of using too much salt on roads and walkways.

Bigger Frogs, More Mosquitos

Department of Natural Resources and the Environment researcher Tracy Rittenhouse and her group are investigating the effects road salts on amphibians.

“Previous research showed that tadpoles tend to metamorph larger in size from salty wetlands and high salinity conditions,” Rittenhouse says. “Generally, we think larger size as a good thing but we’re not sure why they’re larger or how they might be different physiologically.”

Rittenhouse explains that frogs starting life in saltier conditions, though larger, don’t seem to have any advantages later in life, whereas frogs from lower salt conditions started life smaller but grew much faster and larger over time. These results show that not only are amphibians amazingly tolerant to salt, but that we have much to learn. Despite the quantities of salt entering wetland environments, this resilience is why we have not seen massive declines in amphibian populations, says Rittenhouse.

Another experiment completed by an undergraduate student in her lab group showed that juvenile frogs not only detect if soil is salty, they will consistently avoid those conditions.

“That project opened up this whole arena of what we really should be looking at is the juvenile and adult frogs and how they might be responding to salinity in the terrestrial environment,” she says.

Rittenhouse says there are other consequences to heavily salting the road, including disruptions in the food web that can harm some members of the ecosystem while benefiting others.

“For example, salt generally kills most of the zooplankton,” Rittenhouse says. “Zooplankton eat phytoplankton, and tadpoles eat phytoplankton, so with fewer zooplankton, the tadpoles have more food, because those competitors are gone. You get shifts in the communities, but it’s not all negative for everything. Another thing that tends to do well in high salinity wetlands is mosquito larvae. Although a lot of other things die in high salinity conditions, the mosquitoes can tolerate it fairly well too. Maybe that would be a motivator to use less salt.”

Rittenhouse cautions that unless the “more salt is better” mindset changes, we will start to see more negative effects.

Future Changes in Plant Communities?

UConn researchers Beth Lawrence, Ashley Helton, and Gary Robbins recently published a study in Ecosphere investigating the potential impacts of road salts on plant communities and biogeochemistry in wetlands. The road-dense and wetland-abundant landscape of the Northeast provides a perfect setting for this type of investigation, says Lawrence.

“Other studies have found higher invasive species abundance and shifts towards salt tolerant species,” she says. “Surprisingly, we did not see strong shifts in the vegetation even where we observe elevated salinity in the roadside. We saw that invasive species might have a competitive advantage near the road edge and we’re unsure if that was road salt-induced.”

To get a better idea of potential salinity thresholds, the researchers looked at the seed bank — dormant seeds in the soil waiting for optimal germination conditions. They collected soil from a nearby forested wetland and exposed the banked seeds to different salinities to study seedling emergence under varying conditions.

“We found increased salinity reduces numbers of seeds germinating, the seeding density coming out of the soil was lower, and the diversity of species coming up was reduced,” Lawrence says, “suggesting that there might be some plants that are more tolerant and more capable of germinating under higher salinity conditions.”

Fortunately, Lawrence says these experimental salinity levels are higher than field conditions which are currently not salty enough to elicit a strong response.

“If high rates of road salt continue to be applied, we certainly could surpass that threshold and see strong changes in the vegetation in the future.”

A Sodium-lowering Solution

Mike Dietz, an Extension educator and faculty member in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, is working to address high salt application rates. His research also monitors salinity levels around UConn Storrs, and he says the best time to revise application rates is now.

“From some of the monitoring that we have here on campus with Eagle Brook, once we implemented Green Snow Pro training, given by UConn’s T2 Center, application rates were greatly reduced, over the course of two years, we started to see salt concentrations in the stream come down,” Dietz says. “In Connecticut we have this ‘glacial till’ soil that the water moves through very slowly. For example, for water to travel from Storrs Hall to Swan Lake, it takes around 10 months, so it really is a delayed response as we reduce the application rates. It is going to be a year to two years before we see a drop.”

Major hurdles include social factors and expectations, which Dietz says is a largely un-examined issue.

“It’s a big issue. In the 1980s and 1990s, we saw a steep increase in road salt application rates. I think that is when expectations started to change. Whereas previously people would just stay at home after a winter storm, now everybody’s got to get out and get to work. There’s a lot to be considered there,” he says.

Dietz says this issue is getting the attention of state legislators after a road salt bill was proposed in 2021. Dietz and a state-wide chloride workgroup is now working with legislators to craft the best bill possible for the upcoming session. The bill would require private contractors to take the Green Snow Pro training, which Dietz says would be a step in the right direction.

“In New Hampshire about 50% of the salt load that goes down is on private properties,” he says. “Having the liability relief for contractors and property owners that go through this training would be huge, and would really make a difference in the amount of salt that gets applied in Connecticut.”

Robbins, a professor in the Department of Geosciences, agrees that this issue needs to be addressed, and says road salt contamination of groundwater is one of the biggest problems stemming from the overuse of road salt.

“We are not slowing down how much salt is applied,” he says. “The salt gets into the groundwater where elevated concentrations persist even in the summer. It could take a very, very long time for that salt to get out. We have done a lot of groundwater monitoring for salt over the years, and found that the salt concentration has been increasing, on average over ten times natural levels.”

Everyone can do their part to reduce salt use at home, as there are alternatives to dumping salt, says Dietz. Plowing or shoveling driveways and sidewalks will allow the sun to heat the surfaces and melt the snow and ice. It’s also important to ensure the meltwater can drain away, so it doesn’t later re-freeze on the surface. Dietz has had luck with this method, and says he doesn’t need to use any salt at his own home. If you do use salt, just make sure you don’t overdo it, he says.