Lake of Bays township council approves changes to road salt usage | Spare News | pentictonherald.ca

Lake of Bays Township council approved a change in winter road salt usage during the Aug. 12 meeting.

• Samples from 80 of the 274 lakes in the District of Muskoka were tested between 2018 and 2022 and the chloride concentration has gone up by 1.5 mg/L.
• The concentration has increased 15-fold in Lake Muskoka since 1970.
• Guidelines for long term exposure are 120 mg/L but Queen’s University scientist Dr. Shelly Arnott says even 10 mg/L has been shown to negatively affect aquatic organisms.
• Given this information, council has approved an effort to reduce the amount of road salt used.
• The effort will include reporting on the use of road salt annually, supporting research on the impacts of road salt on the eco system, and helping with educating contractors.
• The council will also ask the province to develop legislation, including training for contractors, creating a best practices policy for the entire province, and to create an advisory committee. The committee would ascertain how to best protect freshwater ecosystems and other water-related infrastructure.

Henna Bhavsar is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering Huntsville and Lake of Bays for MuskokaRegion.com. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.