Michigan Is Over-salting Its Roads at the Expense of the Environment
Michigan uses way too much salt on its roads in the winter. How does that hurt the environment?
Written by Andrew Kidd
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Michigan’s
love affair with road salt is not only damaging
its residents’ cars, but hurting its fresh water resources as well.As
Jalopnik
reports, Michigan’s use of road salt on its streets and highways during winter is wreaking havoc on surrounding freshwater rivers and streams, which are showing levels of salinity much higher than normal.How much salt is too much?
According to data from the
Huron River Watershed Council
, samples collected from Michigan waterways around March of 2015 show a salinity about 42X higher than the amount people can taste—30 milligrams per liter, versus the sample’s 1,300 mg per literThe Huron River is a 130-mile-long river in Michigan which starts in Springfield Township and flows into Lake Erie, forming the boundary between Wayne and Monroe counties. Essentially, it passes around the most populous region in the state.
Huron River Watershed Council watershed planning associate Andrea Paine told
The Detroit News
how this higher level of salinity affects the local ecosystem.“Ecosystem degradation is the biggest impact of high chloride concentration,” said Paine. “There’s threats to environmental health and river health in general, including impacts to aquatic macroinvertebrates, fish and other aquatic species including plant life.”
She added that salt can change how wetlands look, as well, noting that higher salt levels can increase the presence of plants like cattails and weeds that thrive in saltier environments.
Let Jerry find your price in only 45 seconds
No spam · No long forms · No fees
Why salt the roads?
If you live in a warm-weather state, you’ve probably never seen salt on your roads (which is probably why they’re in much better shape come spring). In states with frigid winters like Michigan, plows clear snow, but salt keeps the roads from freezing over—and helps keep drivers from sliding in icy conditions. Without road treatments, roads in most Michigan cities would become treacherous, even with snow tires.
It’s also why many car washes offer an undercarriage wash, as vehicles left untreated after a salt-heavy winter tend to rust.
What’s the outlook?
Another
study
published in 2021 found that chloride concentrations in the Great Lakes have risen in the past two centuries. Lake Erie and Ontario saw a decline in chloride concentration in the 1980s following the U.S. Clean Water Act while Lake Michigan increased in the same period.The study also found that it would take 5 million metric tons of salt to raise the salinity 1 mg per liter—which at the surrounding area’s current rate of salt usage could happen within 2-3 years.
That means lakes will keep getting saltier unless road and highway authorities start looking for some alternatives. But it’s not just the local government to blame for increased salt contamination.
General Motors faced a lawsuit after residents near its Milford Proving Grounds claimed the salt runoff from the grounds caused health issues for the town. As
The Oakland Press
reported in 2017, GM denied the suit had merit, despite having sent a letter to nearby residents in October 2014 that the salt it used on its track might have leached into the groundwater and the surrounding properties.Local governments reducing salt use
As WXYZ Detroit reports, local road crews have been finding ways to get around excessive salt usage during
winter months
. Instead of rock salt, the Oakland County Road Commission has been using natural brine, a mix of salt and water, on the road instead of washing off streets and into the environment.Officials with the road commission say they’ve used 20-30% less salt compared to 15 years ago. Neighboring Macomb County road authorities have done something similar, using a pretreatment to reduce salt use by 30% over previous years. Wayne County, where Detroit resides, instructs its drivers to salt once and plow afterward.
Michigan’s Department of Transportation is also experimenting with new ways of keeping roads safe in winter, finding that other states using brine instead of rock salt use about 40% less salt per season. It’s also experimenting with using agricultural products from corn or beets to cut the total amount of salt it puts on roads.
4.7
