What are the environmental concerns associated with road salts?
• Heavy use of road salts has been assessed to cause damage to vegetation, organisms in soil, birds and to other wildlife. • Chloride ions from road salts find their way eventually into waterways, whether by direct runoff into surface water or by moving through the soil and groundwater. • In surface water, road salts can harm freshwater plants, fish and other organisms that are not adapted to living in saline waters.
The five year comprehensive science assessment determined the release of road salts into the environment in very high amounts leads to environmental problems. More than five million tones of road salts are used in Canada each year to mitigate ice and snow conditions on roads and are necessary for road safety. However, the heavy use of road salts can lead to damage to vegetation, as is most obvious with road-side vegetation damaged by salt splash. They have also been associated with damage to organisms in soil, to birds and to other wildlife. Almost all chloride ions from road salts find their way eventually into waterways, whether by direct runoff into surface water or by moving through the soil and groundwater. In surface water, road salts can harm freshwater plants, fish and other organisms that are not adapted to living in saline waters.
