Council motion urges Ontario to tackle groundwater contamination from road salt - CambridgeToday.ca

'We can't salt away our problems:' says Cambridge councillor Scott Hamilton, whose motion pushes for an Ontario-wide change to liability legislation within the snow and ice removal industry and public awareness to reduce road salt use.

A reduction in road salt can have a tangible impact on the quality of groundwater, but a Cambridge city councillor said it’s going to require changes at the provincial level to make that a reality. 

Scott Hamilton is bringing forward a motion that will be introduced at Tuesday’s council meeting, with a decision expected later this month, calling on the province to take action on road salt pollution.

It asks for the province to develop legislation to avoid excessive slip-and-fall lawsuits, create an awareness campaign for the public on best practices around salt use, create a stakeholder committee to advise on the impact of salt pollution and for the City of Cambridge to review bylaws related to snow removal for further salt reduction. 

In a phone interview, Hamilton acknowledged the reality of needing to make sure cars can go where they need to during winter and people can’t be slipping on sidewalks. 

However, Hamilton noted road salt doesn't simply disappear after its use. 

“It stays in the environment, it just melts,” Hamilton said. “It goes into our soil, it goes into our aquifers and that ends up in our drinking water.”

In an email, a City of Cambridge spokesperson said, based on the past four years, the city uses an average of about 5,856 tonnes of road salt per year. 

Based on Region of Waterloo water quality reports, wells tested in Cambridge regularly surpass a 20 mg/L Health Canada chloride threshold for notifying public health and doctors.

A University of Waterloo study by the Water Institute found implementing best management practices around road salt use can improve groundwater quality.

Similar motions have been introduced in other municipalities, first in Muskoka and recently at a Region of Waterloo committee meeting. 

This call for change is being led partially by Landscape Ontario, a trades association with a snow and ice management sector, and being supported by the Ontario Salt Pollution Coalition. 

Claire Malcolmson, executive director of Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition which is part of the OSPC, spoke during delegations at the recent regional committee meeting.

In a phone call she explained a lot of contractors in the snow and ice management sector protect themselves from liability by over-applying road salt. 

“Those guys are having a really hard time because the potential for them to be sued by slip and fall lawsuits is pretty high,” Malcolmson said. “They know that they’re using too much salt but they don’t see that they have any alternative.”

A solution proposed in the motion asks the province to develop limited liability legislation and a set of provincially-endorsed best practices for snow and ice management. 

Hamilton explained that means if you’re a contractor who goes through proper certification and adheres to standard practices including putting down an appropriate amount of salt, you won’t be liable if someone slips. 

Malcolmson said the province uses at least 2.2 million tonnes of salt per year and that is likely to grow due to population growth and urban sprawl expanding the road network. 

“We’re trying to make sure members of the public understand this is one of many costs of sprawl and unsubstantiated new highway builds — highways are chloride hotspots,” she said, noting in her area near Lake Simcoe, the Mascana River has seen increased chloride levels since Highway 404 was built. 

Hamilton noted that municipal pressure to build more housing leads to more roads being constructed. As such, he considers the public awareness component of the motion to be crucial.

He added the city does a good job of reducing the amount of salt used by forgoing some areas such as a parking lot for a soccer field which people aren’t accessing during the winter months.

“We have to remember that we are in Canada and we’re going to have some pretty intense winters, so not every roadway will be as accessible as we want it to be,” he said. “We can’t salt away our problems everywhere, every time. We have to be very careful and cautious as Canadians about how we carry ourselves in winter.”

The full council motion can be read here.