Take Action: Use Less Road Salt
- Thursday, February 24, 2011
Road salts pose a significant threat to our environment and put the health of our groundwater and surface water resources at risk. The sodium and chloride ions which form salt, as well as the toxic contaminants commonly added to road salt to prevent clumping and to make it more effective at melting ice, can infiltrate into our groundwater, accumulate in soils and can wash into our surface water. This can cause irreversible harm to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and greatly affects the quality of the water we use to swim, drink and fish.
To maintain its 12,000 lane-kilometres of roads and 2,000 kilometres of sidewalks during the winter, the City of Ottawa uses an average of 175,000 tonnes of road salt every year. The use of road salts has been identified by the City as an area of concern, and they have been working with Environment Canada to develop their Salt Best Management Practices to reduce the overall amount of salt used each year, to improve application technologies and practices and to incorporate the use of alternative products. While these efforts are certainly a few steps in the right direction, one of the major setbacks to this plan to offset the environmental implications of road salts is that an estimated 40% of total salt used in the City is applied on privately owned parking lots, pathways and driveways. This means that every time we use salt to clear a path from our front door to our cars, to get up our front steps and to clear our driveways of ice, we are contributing to the overall buildup of harmful contaminants in our water.
How can you help?
Reduce your use. This is the simplest and most effective way to help protect the ecosystems being contaminated and to improve the quality of our water. Use only what you need and only when absolutely necessary.
Use eco-friendly alternatives. Whether the goal is to reduce your use of salt or to eliminate it entirely, supplementing salt with alternative products such as abrasives helps to reduce the amount of contaminants infiltrating our groundwater resources and washing into our lakes, rivers and streams.
To learn more about road salts and their impacts on the environment, have a look at Riversides’ Reducing Road Salts Use website, and read through their report on road salt use in Canada.
If you are interested in learning what the government is doing to improve best management practices, check out Environment Canada’s Road Salts website.
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