Chloride emissions are a real threat to our environment. This article By Mike Lynch, discusses the problems and the efforts being used in Upstate New York to combat the rising chloride levels in the local water supply. Salt in fresh water is diluted in the rainy months but not at a rate higher than is added to the winter via runoff from deicing the roads. The only way to remove chlorides from water is by distillation and reverse osmosis filtration, both of which are expensive and are not a feasible solutions to cleaning natural bodies of water.
“If winter salt use continues at its current rate, not accounting for more road building, we estimate that salt concentrations in most urban and suburban streams will exceed 250 milligrams per liter within the next century,” Jackson says. Not only would such levels be lethal to aquatic life, but they would make the water unfit for human consumption.
Liquid ice melters are the answer for cleaner waterways. Liquid ice melters your reduce chloride emissions as much as 84% compared to bulk rock salt. The following article is a great example of how a chloride problems are discovered and monitored. Also some solutions that municipality are using to reducing their bulk rock salt usage, thus lowering their chloride emissions season. Cutting Down on Salt Usage, By Mike Lynch
