Identifying areas vulnerable to road salts

Identifying Areas Vulnerable To Road Salts

• purpose
• considerations

Purpose

The purpose of Annex B is to provide guidance for organizations to consider when identifying areas of a receiving environment that may be particularly sensitive to road salts. Once a vulnerable area has been identified, organizations may then determine the level of vulnerability and the need to implement additional salt management measures.

Additional salt management measures in vulnerable areas may include:

• using technologies that further optimize the use of road salts;
• using environmentally, technically and economically feasible alternatives to road salts;
• increasing monitoring and measuring of chlorides and/or their impacts;
• locating patrol yards and snow disposal sites outside of vulnerable areas; or
• considering location and protection of vulnerable areas in the design of new roads and/or upgrading of existing roads.

It is important to note, when identifying vulnerable areas, that an area may be vulnerable either to infrequent but heavy addition of road salts or to light but frequent addition of road salts.

Organizations may consider consulting with entities that conduct, under their programs, work that could be relevant to the identification of areas vulnerable to road salts. In addition, organizations may wish to exchange information with other organizations adjacent to or having common authority over these vulnerable areas, and consult with their constituents.

Notes:

• Subsection 36(3) of the Fisheries Act prohibits the deposit of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish. Nothing in this Annex should be interpreted as an authorization or recommendation to ignore this prohibition.
• The recommendations described above are intended to complement road salt management procedures already established in areas identified, designated or protected by a local, provincial, territorial, aboriginal, national or international system or body as ecologically significant or ecologically important.

Considerations

When identifying vulnerable areas, organizations should consider:

1. areas draining into bodies of water, such as:
   1. lakes and ponds with low-dilution and long residence times;
   2. watercourses that experience the cumulative effects of a dense network of highways; and
   3. provincially significant wetlands adjacent to roadways
2. where the addition of road salts has the potential to significantly raise the chloride concentration of the water to the point where it could present a threat of serious or irreversible environmental damage;
3. areas draining into small, moderately deep lakes, where the addition of road salts has the potential to create layers of water of different salinity within the lake that prevent normal vertical mixing of the water (meromictic conditions);
4. areas where the addition of road salts has the potential to raise the chloride concentration, after mixing, to levels that could harm local fish or fish habitat;
5. areas adjacent to salt-sensitive native or agricultural vegetation, where the addition of road salts has the potential to cause severe reductions in flowering and fruiting, severe foliar, shoot and root injury, growth reductions, or reductions in germination and seedling establishment caused by elevated soil levels of sodium and chloride or aerial spray of sodium and chloride;
6. areas where the addition of road salts has the potential to harm the integrity of a life cycle (e.g. spawning grounds, nursery, rearing, food supply and migration areas for birds);
7. areas where the addition of road salts has the potential to harm a habitat necessary for the survival or recovery of a wildlife species listed on the List of Wildlife Species at Risk (Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act) where the area is identified as the species’ critical habitat in the recovery strategy or in the action plan for the species established under that Act;
8. areas draining into sources of drinking water (surface water or groundwater, including wells), where the addition of road salts has the potential to raise the chloride concentration of the water to the point where it could not be used as a source of drinking water. Due regard should be given to background concentrations of chloride and other possible sources of chloride in making such a determination;
9. areas draining into groundwater recharge zones or that have an exposed or shallow water table, with medium to high permeability soils, such as medium to coarse sand and gravel, where the addition of road salts has the potential to significantly raise the chloride concentration of the groundwater to the point where it could present a threat of serious or irreversible environmental damage.