March has rolled in, and the end of another winter is almost upon us. While those of us on the West Coast seem to have missed winter entirely while hosting the World’s first Spring Olympics, most of North America is counting down the days to warmer weather and sunshine. What this winter brought, as it does with all winters, is an unfathomable supply of salt dumped on the roads as far as the eye can see. And then a little just a little bit further.
Even though the salt is deemed necessary for those behind the wheel, it has a devastating effect on local habitats and environmental showpieces. We all know what happens when you salt the roads – it melts the snow and ice. That runoff becomes highly contaminated with not just salt, but also oil, heavy metals, and whatever other contaminants wash into the landscape from the roads and highways.
One example, the small community of Pickering, ON along the busy 401 highway east of Toronto is well on its way to losing the ecological footprint in Frenchman’s Bay. The city commissioned a long-term study on the environmental impacts in the bay. As you might guess, the results are not encouraging. The bay itself is a soup of chemicals and contaminants, fish populations are decreasing, and wetlands are retreating. The biggest culprit - heavy salting in the winter.
This isn’t, of course, a new problem but is one that is starting to feel the cumulative effects of the last many decades of winter salting. And like any environmental damage, will it even be possible to reverse the damage once a better option is finally discovered and popularized? There are R&D efforts to find environmentally friendly salts, but to date they are limited and have only “marginally improved” on the problem rather than “eliminated” it altogether. Certain jurisdictions have outlawed the use of salts altogether opting for sand instead. It doesn’t melt the snow, but it does increase road traction.
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