2019 Vol.13 Issue 5 November - Laserfiche WebLink

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Gem Lake News Page 5 of 6 Sales for private companies are also major consumers of road salt, all showing efforts to reduce salt consumptions. The University of Minnesota is conducting studies on possible alternative compounds, though these often are more costly and studies can take several years to achieve conclusive results. In the meantime, organizations like VLAWMO and other public agencies will stress the importance of awareness level education on salt’s environmental impacts. Even salting our back steps and driveways releases chloride. No one is suggesting we be unsafe; salt will always be needed to assure our travel routes are safe. But knowing that chloride does affect the health of the environment is a good starting point. For more information, please visit https://www.pca.state.mn.us/. By Jim Lindner, City Council Member On October 24, the 19th Annual Road Salt Symposium was held at Jimmy’s Event Center in Vadnais Heights. The Vadnais Lake Area Water Management Organization (VLAWMO) sponsored the event and approximately 400 “Road Salt Professionals” (aka snowplow drivers) attended. Gem Lake council member Jim Lindner attended in his role as chair of the VLAWMO Board of Directors. The focus of the event was to find creative ways to reduce road salt usage on winter roads yet maintain safe roads for all. Chloride is a contaminant that few people understand. At concentrated levels chloride poses dangers to fish and amphibians and thus poses a threat to the wildlife that feeds on aquatic life. Unlike other impairments to waters, chloride is a permanent threat. There is no natural way to remove chloride once it is in a water body. Chloride also accumulates in ground water, which represents a concern for wells, both public and private. Road salt is not the only identified source of chloride. Agricultural run off and even water softeners release chloride into the environment. Chloride that enters storm sewers is discharged directly into rivers, which are often the source for municipal drinking water from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Statistics are staggering. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT ) has around 800 plow trucks with salt spreaders on Minnesota roads during any given snowstorm. Add county and municipal trucks and there are well over 1000 trucks spreading salt every time it snows. Even with reduction efforts in place, MNDOT alone used 246,000 tons of salt in the winter of 2018-19, a number that was down by 4900 tons of salt used the previous winter. All that salt is still in the environment accumulating in our lakes and rivers. Thus the focus of the Road Salt Symposium. How can MNDOT and county/city public works departments reduce their dependency on salt? The presentations included efforts from MNDOT, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the State of Wisconsin, and even the Mayo Clinic, Chloride: The Next Big Problem?