PLATTSURGH — Clinton County is looking for alternatives to road salt, but not for the same reasons as its Adirondack neighbors.
The Town of Plattsburgh’s Highway Department has been using sand and salt as its main methods to de-ice roads for years, Superintendent Greg Burnell said.
City of Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest confirmed that is the case in the City of Plattsburgh as well.
“That’s something that we’ve relied on,” Rosenquest said.
“We understand that there are environmental impacts of introducing extraneous amounts of salt into our waterways, and because a lot of our waterways and a lot of our runoff drain straight into the lake, we’re certainly concerned about that.”
SAVING MONEY
The City of Plattsburgh’s Climate Task Force does not have reducing road salt on its immediate agenda. The Task Force’s focus instead is on improving waste management and energy efficiency.
The town Highway Department is considering alternatives to save money and avoid having to clean the sediments built up alongside roads in ditches. The department is doing a trial run of roads de-iced exclusively with salt in the Smithfield Boulevard and Tom Miller Road area and has received positive feedback, Burnell said.
The Highway Department, however, is also eyeing an alternative for salt to use in colder weather, because road salt doesn’t work in temperatures lower than 20 degrees. The group AdkAction, an organization that creates projects to address communities’ social, economic and cultural needs while protecting the environment, advises the Highway Department in regard to road salt alternatives.
New York state has also warned against road salt due to environmental concerns. The Adirondack Road Salt Task Force released a joint report cautioning the Adirondacks to move away from using salt to de-ice roads.
The report warns that salt can contaminate bodies of water — primarily rivers — and shift their ecosystems in favor of more “salt-tolerant” species. It can also be absorbed into the earth and get in groundwater and wells, contaminating drinking water.
‘IT RAISES YOUR EYEBROWS’
Lake Champlain isn’t in danger of turning “salty” anytime soon, said Timothy Mihuc, director of the Lake Champlain Research Institute.
The salt levels are low due to the sheer size of the lake, and do not have contamination effects as drastic as in rivers and smaller lakes.
However, the fact that sodium and chloride, the two main components of salt, are present in the freshwater lake’s water readings at all is a cause for concern.
“It is one of the few parameters in Lake Champlain that is increasing over time,” Mihuc said.
“Just the fact that it’s showing up in that data, it raises your eyebrows. … We all know that the cause is the use of road salt.”
The Lake Champlain Sea Grant Institute reports that besides environmental issues, salt residuals can cause buildings, bridges and pipes to degrade, costing communities more money in annual maintenance and repairs.
‘FINE FOR RIGHT NOW’
Peru has been using brine, a solution containing 23.3% of salt, to de-ice its roads, and has saved $80,000 in the first year, WCAX-TV reported. The Department of Transportation also announced the piloting of a liquid-only brine snow plow along routes 9, 9N and 373 in Keeseville in December 2023. The idea is to coat roads in the brine solution before snow falls.
In an article, Adirondack Explorer reporter Ry Rivard credited Northern New York’s “addiction” to road salt to the 1980 Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid when the Olympic Organizing Committee used six times as much salt as normal on roads to ensure visitors’ safety.
Before then, Mihuc recalled, people carefully trod on the snowy roads.
“While we know the source (of the sodium and chloride), we’re not necessarily going to stop salting roads because people still want to drive in cars and be safe when it’s icy conditions,” Mihuc said.
Lake Champlain’s water completely replenishes from the Saranac River within three years — fairly quickly, Mihuc said — so the sodium and chloride do not linger in its basin for long.
“It seems to be fine for right now,” Rosenquest said.
“In the City of Plattsburgh, we don’t have a concern for well-water contamination because of where we source our water.”
LEVELS IN WATER
Besides wells, the City of Plattsburgh sources water from reservoirs and the Saranac River. The City’s annual drinking water report shows that sodium and chloride are present in the city’s drinking water, but not at levels that are dangerous or in violation of state code.
The levels have increased for both sodium and chloride levels from 2021 to 2022, with the cause being naturally occurring salt as well as road salt.
The Town of Plattsburgh does not measure sodium and chloride levels as part of its annual drinking water quality report.