The effects of road salt on freshwater ecosystems and solutions for mitigating chloride pollution - A review

Author(s):  
Sebastian Szklarek ◽  
Aleksandra Górecka ◽  
Adrianna Wojtal-Frankiewicz
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mallory Carpenter

1.0 Introduction In northern environments such as Canada, road salt (e.g. sodium chloride, NaCl) has been used as a de-icing agent to improve winter driving conditions since the 1950’s (Godwin et al., 2003). While research has shown that the application of salt to roadways can reduce accident rates by up to 88%, the use of road salt has been linked to increasing concentrations of chloride (Cl) in ground and surface waters in urbanized watersheds (Godwin et al., 2003). A recent study (Dugan et al., 2017) which tested 371 lakes in north eastern North America found that 44% trended towards long term salinization – levels at which Cl concentrations may begin to impact freshwater ecosystems. High Cl concentrations have been found to be potentially lethal to aquatic organisms, and long-term exposure can have detrimental effects on human health (Howard and Beck, 1993; Kelly et al., 2008). Keeping lakes and rivers “fresh” is important for the maintenance of ecosystem services associated with freshwater resources such as drinking water, fisheries and aquatic habitat.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 7411-7448 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.-W. Duan ◽  
S. S. Kaushal

Abstract. There has been increased salinization of fresh water over decades due to the use of road salt deicers, wastewater discharges, human-accelerated weathering, and groundwater irrigation. The effects of increased salinization on biogeochemical cycles in freshwater ecosystems are still not well understood. We investigated potential impacts of increased salinization on fluxes of bioreactive elements from stream sediments and riparian soils to overlying stream water. Two-day incubations of sediments and soils with stream and deionized water across 3 salt levels were conducted at 8 routine monitoring stations at the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Ambient stream chemistry was also monitored before and after a snow event coinciding with road salt additions. Results indicated: (1) salinization typically increased sediment releases of labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total dissolved Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) (ammonium + ammonia + dissolved organic nitrogen), and sediment transformations of nitrate, (2) salinization generally decreased DOC aromaticity and fluxes of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) from both sediments and soils, (3) the effects of increased salinization on sediment releases of DOC and TKN and DOC quality increased with percentage watershed urbanization. The differential responses of riparian soils and sediments to increased salinization were likely due to differences in organic matter amounts and composition. Results of the sediment and soil incubations were used to interpret changes in ambient stream chemistry before and after a snow event. Our results suggest that short-term increases in salinization can cause releases of significant amounts of labile organic carbon and nitrogen from stream substrates and organic transformations of nitrogen and phosphorus. Given that salinization of fresh water will increase in the future, potential impacts on coupled biogeochemical cycles and water quality should be expected.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mallory Carpenter

1.0 Introduction In northern environments such as Canada, road salt (e.g. sodium chloride, NaCl) has been used as a de-icing agent to improve winter driving conditions since the 1950’s (Godwin et al., 2003). While research has shown that the application of salt to roadways can reduce accident rates by up to 88%, the use of road salt has been linked to increasing concentrations of chloride (Cl) in ground and surface waters in urbanized watersheds (Godwin et al., 2003). A recent study (Dugan et al., 2017) which tested 371 lakes in north eastern North America found that 44% trended towards long term salinization – levels at which Cl concentrations may begin to impact freshwater ecosystems. High Cl concentrations have been found to be potentially lethal to aquatic organisms, and long-term exposure can have detrimental effects on human health (Howard and Beck, 1993; Kelly et al., 2008). Keeping lakes and rivers “fresh” is important for the maintenance of ecosystem services associated with freshwater resources such as drinking water, fisheries and aquatic habitat.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 136-148
Author(s):  
I. V. Gryb

The concept of an explosion in freshwater ecosystems as a result of the release of accumulated energy, accompanied by the destruction of the steady climax successions of hydrocenoses is presented. The typification of local explosions as well as methods for assessing their risk during the development of river basins are shown. The change in atmospheric circulation, impaired phases of the hydrological regime of rivers, increasing the average temperature of the planet, including in Polesie to 0,6 ºC, deforestation leads to concentration and release of huge amounts of unmanaged terrestrial energy, which manifests itself in the form of disasters and emergencies. Hydroecological explosion is formed as a result of multifactorial external influence (natural and anthropogenic) on the water body in a certain period of time. Moreover, its level at wastewater discharge depends on the mass of recycled impurities and behaved processing capacity of the reservoir, and the mass of dumped on biocides and the possibility of the water flow to their dilution and to the utilization of non-toxic concentrations. In all these cases the preservation of "centers of life" in the tributaries of the first order – local fish reproduction areas contributed to ecosystem recovery, and the entire ecosystem has evolved from equilibrium to non-equilibrium with further restructuring after the explosion and environmental transition to a new trophic level. It means that hydroecological explosion can be researched as the logical course of development of living matter in abiotic environmental conditions, ending abruptly with the formation of new species composition cenoses and new bio-productivity. The buffer capacity of the water environment is reduced due to re-development and anthropic transformation of geobiocenoses of river basins, which leads to a weakening of life resistance. This applies particularly to the southern industrial regions of Ukraine, located in the arid zone that is even more relevant in the context of increased average temperature due to the greenhouse effect, as well as to Polesie (Western, Central and Chernihiv), had been exposed to large-scale drainage of 60-80th years, which contributed to the degradation of peatlands and fitostroma. Imposing the western trace of emissions from the Chernobyl accident to these areas had created the conditions of prolonged hydroecological explosion in an intense process of aging water bodies, especially lakes, change in species composition of fish fauna and the occurrence of neoplasms at the organismal level. Under these conditions, for the existence of man and the environment the vitaukta should be strengthened, i.e. buffer resistance and capacitance the aquatic environment, bioefficiency on the one hand and balanced using the energy deposited - on the other. This will restore the functioning of ecosystems "channel-floodplain", "riverbed-lake", reducing the energy load on the aquatic environment. Hydroecological explosions of natural origin can not be considered a pathology – it is a jump process of natural selection of species of biota. Another thing, if they are of anthropogenic origin and if the magnitude of such an impact is on the power of geological factors. Hydroecological explosions can be regarded as a manifestation of environmental wars that consciously or unconsciously, human society is waging against themselves and their kind in the river basins, so prevention of entropy increase in the aquatic environment and the prevention of hydroecological explosions is a matter of human survival. While the man - is not the final link in the development of living matter, it can develop without him, as matter is eternal, and the forms of its existence are different.


2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandana Perera ◽  
Bahram Gharabaghi ◽  
Peter Noehammer ◽  
Bruce Kilgour

Abstract Occurrence of increasing chloride concentrations in urban streams of cold climates, mainly due to road salt application, has raised concerns on its adverse effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, there is a need for a better understanding of processes associated with road salt application and subsequent discharge into the environment in order to develop management practices to minimize detrimental effects of chlorides. The chloride mass analysis for the Highland Creek watershed based on four years of hourly monitoring data indicates that approximately 60% of the chlorides applied on the watershed enter streams prior to subsequent salting period, 85% of which occurs during the period between November and March. Contribution of private de-icing operations on chloride mass input within Highland Creek watershed was estimated to be approximately 38%, indicating its significance in overall chloride mass balance. Salt application rates, as well as chloride output in the streams, vary spatially based on land use, influencing chloride concentrations in surface waters. The estimated groundwater chloride concentration of 275 mg/L indicates that some aquatic organisms in Highland Creek would potentially be at risk even outside the winter period under dry weather flow conditions.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla M. Koretsky ◽  
◽  
Ryan Sibert ◽  
Davina A. Wyman ◽  
Danielle Dupuis
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