Mayor Valérie Plante - ban use of road salt in Montréal (switch to sand if needed)
The Issue
Road salt runoff starves soils of oxygen, killing plants and soil bacteria, and chlorine contained in road salt kills and/or greatly damages all forms of life, including aquatic life, amphibia, birds, small mammals. It is also highly corrosive and damages vehicles. A safe and cheap alternative is sand.
Please stop the use of road salt, while we still have some soil that can support life, in the city.
Please read more on damage from road salt here: http://blog.healthywildlife.ca/salt-wildlife-health-environmental-impacts-road-salt/
2 main threats to life, from the article above:
The Dead Zone
One of the environmental problems with using salt is that it enters surface waters in runoff. This brine is denser than surface waters and when it enters a wetland it typically sinks to the bottom where it forms a barrier preventing the mixing and exchange of oxygen and nutrients between upper layers of the water column and the substrate. This creates an anoxic (lacking oxygen) environment at the bottom of these wetlands which is unable to support aquatic wildlife, thus creating dead zones.
Chloride Rising
When salt enters surface waters it also increases their chloride concentrations. Chloride is toxic to many species of aquatic wildlife including fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. Natural chloride concentrations are typically 1-10mg/L, however, in some cases where salt is applied to nearby roadways wetland concentrations can increase to levels far greater than 800mg/L. While high concentrations of chloride (>1000 mg/L) are capable of causing acute toxicity to wetland species, exposure to lower concentrations (240 mg/L) for prolonged periods is considered harmful to 10% of aquatic species.
Chloride is not subject to any significant removal by natural processes, it is neither broken down or metabolized. Thus excessive chloride concentrations can only be reduced through dilution, which occurs through the gradual movement of waters downstream. As a result, the concentration of chloride can continue to increase year after year until wetlands become toxic to aquatic wildlife.
The Issue
Road salt runoff starves soils of oxygen, killing plants and soil bacteria, and chlorine contained in road salt kills and/or greatly damages all forms of life, including aquatic life, amphibia, birds, small mammals. It is also highly corrosive and damages vehicles. A safe and cheap alternative is sand.
Please stop the use of road salt, while we still have some soil that can support life, in the city.
Please read more on damage from road salt here: http://blog.healthywildlife.ca/salt-wildlife-health-environmental-impacts-road-salt/
2 main threats to life, from the article above:
The Dead Zone
One of the environmental problems with using salt is that it enters surface waters in runoff. This brine is denser than surface waters and when it enters a wetland it typically sinks to the bottom where it forms a barrier preventing the mixing and exchange of oxygen and nutrients between upper layers of the water column and the substrate. This creates an anoxic (lacking oxygen) environment at the bottom of these wetlands which is unable to support aquatic wildlife, thus creating dead zones.
Chloride Rising
When salt enters surface waters it also increases their chloride concentrations. Chloride is toxic to many species of aquatic wildlife including fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. Natural chloride concentrations are typically 1-10mg/L, however, in some cases where salt is applied to nearby roadways wetland concentrations can increase to levels far greater than 800mg/L. While high concentrations of chloride (>1000 mg/L) are capable of causing acute toxicity to wetland species, exposure to lower concentrations (240 mg/L) for prolonged periods is considered harmful to 10% of aquatic species.
Chloride is not subject to any significant removal by natural processes, it is neither broken down or metabolized. Thus excessive chloride concentrations can only be reduced through dilution, which occurs through the gradual movement of waters downstream. As a result, the concentration of chloride can continue to increase year after year until wetlands become toxic to aquatic wildlife.
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Petition created on November 9, 2020