Road salt, smart salting and winter maintenance

MPCA recommends a low-salt diet for Minnesota waters. Doctors tell us to stick to a low-salt diet. Our lakes and streams should follow the same advice. When winter comes and snow and ice build up on Minnesota roads, parking lots, and sidewalks, one of the most common reactions is to apply salt, which contains chloride, a water pollutant.

Salt pollutes. When snow and ice melts, the salt goes with it, washing into our lakes, streams, wetlands, and groundwater. It takes only one teaspoon of road salt to permanently pollute 5 gallons of water. Once in the water, there is no way to remove the chloride, and at high concentrations, chloride can harm fish and plant life. Less is more when it comes to applying road salt.

The following table of contents summarizes pages and sections in the manual that address road salt, Smart Salting (S2), and winter maintenance.

• Overview and impacts of road salt and deicers
  • How salt works and overview of deicing chemicals
  • Environmental impacts of road salt and other de-icing chemicals
  • Other impacts of road salt use
• Smart Salting Best Management Practices (BMPs) (coming soon)
• Management tools
  • Chloride Management Plan
  • Winter Maintenance Assessment tool (WMAt)
• Smart Salting (S2) training program
  • Winter Parking Lot and Sidewalk Maintenance Manual
  • Winter Parking Lot and Sidewalk Maintenance Factsheet
  • Smart Salting (S2) training information
  • Smart Salting (S2) training certificate holders
  • Minnesota snow and ice control - Field handbook for snowplow operators
• Educational resources for Smart Salting (S2)
• Success stories: salt reduction and cost saving examples
• Information on costs and economic impacts of road salt
• Chloride TMDL projects
• Links for Smart Salting (S2) and road salt winter maintenance
• References for Smart Salting (S2) and road salt winter maintenance