Let’s talk about salt

After visiting family members in early January, we pointed the car north, eager to get back home to Indiana. But winter storm Blair had just tore a path across southern Indiana, and the beautiful icicled trees suggested to us (strongly) to get a hotel in Kentucky. We gave an extra day to the road crews, who would be plowing and salting furiously to match our demand for high-speed, safe, and convenient interstate car travel.

Our trip planning assumed an abundance of salt at hand, used to lower the melting point temperature of the ice enough for it to drain away. But that salty tradeoff came with a price to local waterways.

Our aquatic ecosystems evolved over thousands of years with salt as a limited nutrient. Just in the last few decades, we’ve mined millions of truckloads of ancient sea salt from underground and spread it across the land. (We covered this topic several years ago in this succinct and well-written post about salt).

The unfortunate reality is that just a single teaspoon of road salt can permanently pollute five gallons of water – whether our streams, lakes, or groundwater. Salt does not biodegrade, it just accumulates over time.

According to Dr. John K. Jackson from the Stroud Water Research Center, increasing salt levels leads to species loss of macroinvertebrates, those small creatures in the water that serve as indicators of water health, or lack thereof. Mayflies and mussels are especially sensitive to long-term salt concentrations.

Salt (sodium chloride) also has impacts to our human infrastructure. Chloride is extremely corrosive, eating away at our bridges, culverts, pipes, appliances, and cars. (No, I’m not going to post a picture of my rusty old ride!).

While it has its utility, it can also create a bit of a mess. This is what the front of my office looks like with just one person trudging in and out for a day…

A coffee shop I visit often (think lots of foot traffic) had a veritable salt flat forming on their vinyl floor. Enough so that they felt compelled to mop it up, which then necessitated a “hazard: wet floor” sign. In an effort to keep people from slipping on ice, now we had the risk of people slipping on water. They were trying their best.

The good news for Lake Maxinkuckee is that it is not completely surrounded by a large city with a vast network of salted roads. Our challenge is not insurmountable, but salt’s cumulative nature means that we do need to be diligent. Small actions keep adding up over the decades. Salt is not regulated by state or federal entities, making it crucial for local towns, non-profits, and landowners to use salt responsibly.

What can we do? Follow these steps from Wisconsin Salt Wise (or see here for our own audio-visual production!):

Shovel: Clear walkways and other areas before the snow turns to ice. The more snow you can remove, the less salt you will have to use.

Scatter: If you use salt, scatter it so there is space between the grains. Believe it or not, just one coffee mug of salt is enough to treat a 20-foot single car driveway, or 10 sidewalk squares.

Switch: When pavement temperatures drop below 15 degrees, salt becomes ineffective. Switch to sand for traction or to a different ice melter manufactured to work at lower temperatures.

Sweep: If the forecast calls for rain, sweep up any leftover salt from driveways and sidewalks. This way, extra salt won’t wash into our lakes and waterways.

Winter Salt Week is January 27-31. Keep an eye on our blog (www.lakemax.org/blog) and social media channels for local salt stories. Starting today, you can head over to the Winter Salt Week website (www.wintersaltweek.org) for webinars that cover the latest science around both salt problems and salt solutions.