Salt Management
On this page:
- Help keep salt out of groundwater
- What you might not know about salt
- What the Region of Waterloo is doing
- Why salt is a water quality concern
- Resources
Salt is a major water quality concern. The salt we spread on the ground does not go away. Some of this salt soaks into the ground to mix with groundwater, the water we drink. Once the salt is in the water, there is no easy fix to remove it.
Help keep salt out of groundwater
When everyone uses a little less, together we can make a difference.
- Snow clearing tips for residential properties
- Resources for businesses and winter maintenance service providers
What you might not know about salt
- Environmentally friendly ice melters contain salt and are not water friendly
- Current water and wastewater treatment does not remove salt from water. Removing salt requires desalination, an expensive and energy intensive treatment.
- Salt (sodium chloride) does not work when colder than -10 C
What the Region of Waterloo is doing
- Balance winter road safety with the environmental impacts of salt to manage salt use on roads
- Hire Smart About Salt certified contractors for winter maintenance on properties
- Provide our staff with salt management training
- Monitor water quality of municipal drinking water sources
- Educate youth through our water education program
- Work with property owners to improve salting practices through Source Protection policies
Why salt is a water quality concern
No easy fix to remove salt once in the water.
- Current water and wastewater treatment does not remove salt from the water
- Removing salt requires desalination which is extremely expensive and energy intensive
- Including desalination as part of the treatment process would also result in much higher water costs for the community
Chloride levels from salt are increasing in groundwater wells.
- The image below compares chloride levels in Region of Waterloo municipal groundwater wells between 1998 and 2018
- The orange and red dots represent groundwater wells with chloride levels near or exceeding the 250 mg/L limit
The Ontario Drinking Water Objectives for chloride is 250 mg/L.
- This is when a salty taste may be detectable by some people
- Groundwater from different wells is blended or mixed to lower the chloride levels
Snow and Ice Control for Parking Lots and Sidewalks, University of Waterloo. Addresses the common question winter maintenance contractors face each winter: what are the right snow and ice control methods, materials, and amounts of material that should be applied under specific winter weather conditions?
Evaluation of Organic Anti-icing Materials for Winter Maintenance, University of Waterloo. Evaluates and compares the capacity of three organic and semi-organic anti-icing liquids and conventional sodium chloride brine to improve pavement friction relative to an untreated control
Specifying Salt Management Best Practices in Parking Lot Winter Maintenance Contracts, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Provides guidance on how to develop parking lot snow and ice management contracts that encourage the use of best practices for salt management established by Environment Canada and other organizations such as the Transportation Association of Canada.
Friction and Parking Lots, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. Friction testing show us that bare pavement is safest, as it has the highest friction value, and that the over-application of salt does not translate to safer conditions. The takeaway from this is that if you achieve bare pavement in a reasonable amount of time with little to no residual salt, you applied the right amount.
Salty summertime streams Road salt contaminated watersheds and estimates of the proportion of impacted species, University of Toronto.
