Aaron Harris/Torstar News Service
A front-end loader grabs salt earlier this winter at the Copper Road Yard in Brampton. Salt used to de-ice roads during the winter can have various harmful effects on the environment.
It looks as though winter is finally coming to an end. In fact, it is now officially spring. As we contemplate the eagerly anticipated spring thaw, there are various issues that spring to mind.
One is much of the salt we have been dumping on the roads and sidewalks all winter will be washed into waterways. Other salt that is entrained in snowbanks will end up in soil by the sides of roads.
Salt in surface water can affect spawning or hatching fish and can cause metals to become dissolved in water, which can have further toxic effects. Drinking water quality, whether from surface water or groundwater, can also be impacted. Salt washed into soil doesn’t go anywhere and accumulates year after year, destroying soil structure and causing fewer plants to grow in this soil and erosion to increase. Salt by the side of roads lures animals to these “salt licks,” which increases the likelihood these animals will be hit by a car.
Now don’t get us wrong, de-icing is necessary. The city can shut down for the odd severe snowstorm but all activities cannot cease when we get a few centimetres of snow. There are, however, de-icing alternatives that should be considered for our roads.
The most commonly used road salt is rock salt or sodium chloride, the same chemical as table salt. Alternatives to sodium chloride include magnesium chloride and calcium magnesium acetate.
Magnesium chloride could cause less vegetation damage and less solubilization of metals than sodium chloride. It works at lower temperatures than rock salt and is commonly used in combination with rock salt when it gets very cold. It is, however, about seven times more expensive than rock salt.
Calcium magnesium acetate has much fewer toxic effects than rock salt and is, to some extent, biodegradable. The calcium and magnesium would remain in soil but the acetate would degrade. Using this alternative would avoid toxicity caused by chloride ions. It could be spread in much the same way as rock salt, but because of its particle size, it may be more likely to blow around. It does, however, take longer to melt ice than rock salt and is roughly 20 times more expensive.
Various de-icing techniques can also reduce salt use. Anti-icing, or the pre-emptive spreading of salt before a snowfall, can result in the requirement for less salt per unit of road surface. Prewetting the salt, i.e., spraying on the roads as a solution rather than as a powder, also results in the use of less salt. Sanding is another option, although it provides traction rather than de-icing, and it comes with its own set of environmental issues. Sanding probably can’t completely replace salting without impacting winter travel.
When it comes to keeping our roads safe in the winter without doing further harm to the environment, the truth must be faced. We are going to need to pay more for de-icing. The use of cheap rock salt is going to have to be drastically reduced and one or more of these more expensive alternatives is going to have to be phased in.
We cannot keep trading short-term cost for long-term cost.
Andrew Laursen is an assistant professor at Ryerson University, studying ecosystem ecology. Sophia Dore is an environmental scientist with Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, an environmental consulting company.
