Evaluating MTO’s Commitment to Reducing Road Salt Releases
The Ministry of Transportation has had a commitment in its Statement of Environmental Values (SEV) since 1994 to improve its salt management practices, stating that it will “continue to study ways to improve salt management practices and to minimize releases to the environment.” MTO is also committed to “seek ways to reduce transportation-related discharges of contaminants to water,” since the ministry believes “that the protection of air, water, and land resources is necessary to sustain future generations and the long term survival of plants, animals and aquatic life.” Road salt is composed primarily of sodium chloride, commonly known as table salt. However, road salt may also contain chlorides of calcium, potassium and magnesium, as well as small amounts of ferrocyanide salts (an agent which prevents “caking” when stored) and other specialized additives. It has been known for at least several decades that road salt can have an adverse effect on the natural environment, especially on small water bodies, groundwater, aquatic organisms and roadside vegetation. In recent winters, as much as 1.8 million tonnes of road salt have been spread on Ontario’s roads. MTO or its contractors account for about one-quarter of the provincial road salt use; the balance is spread by municipal or other agents on roads that are not provincially maintained.
While MTO’s SEV commitments have been in place for eight years, it appears that recently the ministry has stepped up its efforts to minimize salt releases to the environment by using a variety of methods and technologies that control snow and ice and reduce salt use. Some of these include using road weather information systems to determine where and when salt is needed; deploying advanced salt-spreading equipment; and pre-wetting road salt to help it melt ice and snow more quickly. These methods, according to MTO, should allow the ministry and its contractors to achieve an estimated 20-30 per cent reduction in the amount of salt applied to provincial roads, although the ministry is not setting itself a formal reduction target.
During the 2001/2002 reporting period, Environment Canada proposed declaring road salt a toxic substance under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), helping to focus attention on strategies to reduce road salt use. Many municipalities have begun to institute road salt reduction programs, including the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Grey County, and the Cities of Toronto and Greater Sudbury.
With the CEPA developments adding a sense of urgency to the ministry’s SEV commitment, MTO could demonstrate the efficacy of its road salt release minimization programs in ways that would “prove” the value of ministry efforts. These could include:
- Establishing a road salt use monitoring and reporting program that correlates road salt use to weather conditions for a given year. Over time, MTO could use this program to assess whether it is using less salt under the same weather conditions, and over a total season.
- Establishing an ecological monitoring program to track the health of sensitive plants and aquatic organisms near areas where road salt release has been reduced in order to evaluate the impact of ministry programs over time.
| Recommendation 1:
The ECO recommends that the Ministry of Transportation explore the establishment of an ecological monitoring program involving vegetation or aquatic organisms near road salt release reduction areas in order to evaluate the impact of reducing road salt releases over time. |
Related article: Road salt: Can ice-free roads and environmental protection be reconciled? (2007)
| This is an article from the 2001/02 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2002. "Developing Sustainability: Evaluating MTO’s Commitment to Reducing Road Salt Releases." Developing Sustainability, ECO Annual Report, 2001-02. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 9.
