However, too much chloride from salt is not good for people, animals, birds, fish, area waterways and water treatment plants. Those facilities can’t filter out the extra salt, so it can end up in your tap water and even corrode your pipes.
Simply put – Minnesota’s salt problem is accelerating.
“Road salt is a big problem in the Twin Cities metro area,” said Matt Kocian of the Rice Creek Watershed District. “Chloride is toxic to fish and invertebrates. Almost a half million tons is applied across Minnesota every year. That’s a lot of road salt. That’s a lot of chloride that runs off into our waterways.”
Salt is a necessary evil in winter – it keeps roads from becoming ice rinks. But it also is the enemy of Minnesota’s countless creeks, lakes and rivers.
“The salt is really bad for the waters it runs off into,” Kocian said. “You can see behind us here there’s a small wetland. So this road salt when it rains, when it snows, when this stuff melts, runs off into these wetlands. You may think well this is a small wetland, what’s the big deal? Well there are a lot of critters that live in these wetlands and these wetlands when they overflow run down into creeks, which run down into lakes. All of this area that we are standing in right now eventually drains down into Golden Lake.”
Cut back on salt
According to Kocian, once salt gets into water it becomes a permanent problem.
“Once the chloride is in our lakes and streams you can’t get it out,” Kocian said.
Kocian believes the time has come for transportation departments to cut back on salt use.
“Whether it’s a road authority – MnDOT, county plows or things like that – it’s about finding ways to use less,” Kocian said. “There’s a brine spray that can be used now. That typically results in less chloride use than a rock salt like this.”
North Metro residents can also chip in and do their part to minimize the amount of chloride that winds up in area waterways.
“A homeowner should get out and shovel right after a snowfall to insure that stuff is not freezing your sidewalk,” Kocian said. “When homeowners do need to use salt, it’s about using less. Typically a coffee cup should be enough to cover a driveway. There is no need to be spreading out many pounds of it.”
So far it’s been a mostly brown winter in the Twin Cities. Less snow means less chloride runoff, but that doesn’t mean the salt problem is going away.
“These warmer winters when we have rain events in the middle of the winter can be really bad,” Kocian said. “Because any of the salt that has been applied is going to quickly run off into any of the lakes or streams or wetlands,”
Winter Salt Awareness Week is January 27 through 31. This is put on by government and non-government organizations across the United States and Canada.
