When freezing temps bring icy roads, the only way to stop car accidents and big traffic stops is with de-icing salts containing sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride. However, scientists are saying that salts may do more harm than good.
A new review published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment claims that using de-icing salts damages freshwater sources.
Scientists who worked on the review looked at the hazards of using salt to make driving safer and found that the substances are contaminating streams and lakes while building up in wetlands.
Now scientists are arguing that the Environmental Protection Agency’s thresholds need to be raised to protect life in freshwater systems effectively.
In their review, scientists continued saying, “there is also an urgent need to understand how freshwater organisms respond to novel chemical cocktails generated from road salt salinization.”
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Researchers behind the review are not only looking at how the salt affects wildlife but also something that is important to humans, drinking water.
In numerous cases, researchers reviewed scientific literature that found drinking water salinity levels outstrip federal thresholds a cause of de-icing salt contamination.
But the issue goes beyond salinity as the salt also increases how much cadmium, lead, and radium is in the groundwater.
With the dangers of using salt evident, the Minnesota Department of Transportation shared that they know what risk the substance brings.
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Anne Meyer, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, responded to the new report on the environmental dangers of using salt to keep roads clear of ice.
"I will say that Mother Nature does dictate what we are doing out there and salt is effective in terms of clearing roads. There is an expectation to return highways to good driving conditions,” Meyer said. “But we balance that with the needs also to keep the environment in mind."
Meyer’s added that the department is using a brine with its salt in order to make it stick where they want it to, limiting the impacts it has on the environment.
"That's allowing the salt to stick to where we want it to on the roads," Meyer said. " And it also helps to make the salt activate faster, so we don't have to use as much of it."
With brackish drinking water corroding plumbing, de-icing is linked to leaching of metals such as lead into water supplies like what has happened in Flint, Michigan.
Researchers know that there may be no end to the use of de-icing salts, however, they say that proper storage, mindful equipment calibration, and different methods of de-icing like pre-wetting roads or spraying salt brines before there’s ice on the ground can reduce the impact salt has on the environment.
