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Guest post by Jenny Whidden, moderator for the August 15 presentation. While salt currently plays an essential role in keeping our roads safe during snowy, cold weather, its overuse takes a lofty and often permanent environmental toll — especially within our fresh water bodies. Salt from winter deicing practices, potassium chloride fertilizer and water softening equipment can contaminate drinking water, endanger wildlife and damage property. That’s because once salt makes its way down roads and sidewalks, it finds itself in our water with no way to remove it. “Once (salts containing chloride) come in contact with water, that chloride is very strongly bound to the water. Wherever that water goes, the chloride goes with it,” Brooke Aslesen, Watershed Specialist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said at an Aug. 15 webinar hosted by the League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi River Region Inter League Organization. “With it not breaking down and staying in the water, (chloride) tends to build up in a lot of our surface waters and in our groundwaters as well.” With the hope of reducing chloride pollution and inspiring ‘Salt Smart’ initiatives across the region, LWV UMRR hosted the educational awareness webinar in collaboration with experts from Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “It is becoming clear that the current pattern in road salt usage is unsustainable, and there is a strong desire for communities to act before more surface waters become impaired due to high chloride levels,” Carolyn Mahlum-Jenkins, an UMRR Board Member from LWV LaCrosse, said at the event. “There are many pieces to the puzzle of reducing chloride pollution: A single recommendation will not work alone.” Those puzzle pieces include education and training, regulation and policy, monitoring, and financial support among various programs and partnerships, Mahlum-Jenkins said. While experts emphasized there is no natural or feasible way to pull existing salt out of our water bodies or to mitigate pollution once salt is put down, there is promise in collectively working toward best practices as individuals, communities and regions, they said. For instance, programs like the Salt Smart Collaborative, a program of The Conservation Foundation, encourages the use of Salt Smart practices among the winter maintenance workforce by providing resources like workshops and trainings, the Salt Smart Certified program, and targeted outreach materials. These resources are made available across a range of organizations including transportation agencies, municipalities, park districts and private contractors. At a larger scale, the Upper Mississippi River Region has seen some development in state legislatures. Both the Minnesota and Wisconsin legislatures had bills on salt management in 2024. Though they each failed to cross the finish line — with the Wisconsin bill in particular hitting a wall after Gov. Tony Evers vetoed it — advocates said there are a number of ways individuals can participate in outreach to educate their communities and support legislation moving forward. Those include reaching out to legislators, hosting a ‘Shovel More, Salt Less’ Campaign and promoting Winter Salt Awareness Week. “If you want to make a difference in your local community, I think getting some signage out can be really powerful,” Allison Madison, Manager of the Wisconsin Salt Wise Program, said at the Aug. 15 webinar. “We had a ‘Shovel More, Salt Less’ campaign in the Madison (Wisconsin) area that was really successful and I’d love to expand that to other communities with your help.” Madison added that advocates can participate in Winter Salt Awareness Week, a January program that has grown from the state to the national level. Partners from a dozen states have committed so far, including Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. Outreach resources, including social media posts, videos, graphics and posters are further available at the Salt Smart Collaborative website, said Hannah Miller, Watershed Program Manager with The Conservation Foundation in Illinois. The website also has blog posts that can be used in local newsletters.
For those based in Northeastern Illinois, Miller added the Salt Smart Collaborative has a traveling exhibit that can be displayed at local libraries. For more hands-on participation, Illinois advocates can become Winter Chloride Watchers of their local waterways through a partnership between The Conservation Foundation and Illinois RiverWatch. Volunteers collect and report results from November through May, with training offered in October. Outside of Illinois, individuals across the nation can participate in a similar monitoring program through the Izaak Walton League of America’s Salt Watch initiative. LWV UMRR’s Aug. 15 program, “A View from Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin on SaltSmart Practices,” was recorded on Zoom and can be found at tinyurl.com/UMMRSaltSmart.
Below is the original blog post used to advertise this program. Salt is a big problem for streams, lakes and rivers in the Upper Mississippi Basin. Salt - sodium chloride - breaks down into sodium, which is absorbed on soils, and chloride, which moves freely through soil and builds up in water bodies. (Read more about trends in chloride in this post!) Once salt goes down on roads or sidewalks, it doesn't go away. Salt levels are rising in lakes, streams, and rivers in Illinois. Overuse of salt during the winter can damage our built and natural environments. We can protect our natural resources and reduce road salt without sacrificing safety. Working towards better practices is a multi-faceted endeavor. Programs like the Salt Smart Collaborative, a program of The Conservation Foundation, encourage the use of Salt Smart practices in winter maintenance operations. Salt Smart practices are the best practices for winter maintenance operations that reduce salt use and provide safe surfaces. Resources (like workshops and trainings, the Salt Smart Certified program, and targeted outreach materials) are made available through the Salt Smart Collaborative to transportation agencies, municipalities, park districts, and private contractors to encourage and support the adoption of the best practices for salt use. This event on August 15 will help us to build our understanding on this important topic in water quality!  This graphic from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency shows the sources of salt (chloride) in the environment. States like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois have programs to address chloride, and in our upcoming program on August 15, we will hear about these programs. Our speakers will be Hannah Miller, Watershed Program Manager with The Conservation Foundation in Illinois; Allison Madison, Manager of the Wisconsin Salt Wise Program; and Brooke Aslesen, Watershed Specialist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. This panel will share information on salt managment programs in their respective states, which will provide a background for understanding this topic. Both the Minnesota and Wisconsin legislatures had bills on salt management in the 2024 sessions. It is important for advocates to understand the background of currrent practice as we move into the 2025 session. The Minnesota bill (HF3565 and SF3954) died in the 2024 legislature, and Governor Evers vetoed the Wisconsin bill (Senate File 52). Background and References: LWV Duluth Environmental Action Committee Meeting & Izaak Walton League January 17, 2024 "Putting Duluth on a Low (Road) Salt Diet" Click here to view the recording of this presentation This recording features a panel of three speakers from New Hamshire, which has implemented a salt program which is a model for other states. UMBRA Report on Mississippi River Water Quality (Upper Mississippi River Basin report) Decades of Road Salting Is Polluting the Mississippi River (Milwuakee Journal Sentinal) The Impact of Road Salt on Local Waterways (Wisconsin legislation) SPEAKERS FOR THE AUGUST 15 EVENT: Hannah Miller, Illinois Allison Madison, Wisconsin Brooke Aslesen, Minnesota Hannah Miller, The Conservation Foundation Hanna Miller is a Watershed Project Manager at The Conservation Foundation working on reducing the impacts of chlorides. She is the workgroup coordinator for the Chicago Area Waterways Chloride Workgroup and the co-coordinator for the Salt Smart Collaborative. Hanna graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in Geoscience. Outside of work, Hanna can often be found cycling along one of the many waterways in the Chicago area. Allison Madison, Wisconsin Salt Wise Program Allison Madison is the Wisconsin Salt Wise Program Manager. Since assuming her role in June 2020, she has spearheaded collaboration around salt reduction in watersheds across the state. Her work takes her to mall parking lots, urban streams, County Highway shops, and the Capitol building. Allison has 10+ years of experience in science and sustainability education in both formal classrooms and National Parks. Allison graduated from St. Olaf College and has a joint MS in Environment and Resources and Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin. She's passionate about protecting Wisconsin's freshwater resources and celebrating their beauty by paddling, swimming, cross-country skiing, etc. Brooke Aslesen, Minnesota Chloride Reduction Program
Brooke Aslesen has worked at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency since 2007 where she works collaboratively with federal, state, local partners, and research institutions to protect Minnesota’s water resources. She has been working on chloride and water quality issues at the MPCA for over 16 years. The core of that work has been developing partnerships with a wide variety of experts and professionals to develop strategies that reduce chloride while supporting public needs. Brooke now coordinates the MPCA’s Chloride Reduction Program that includes the highly successful Smart Salting training program as well as the new Chloride Reduction Grant program, the Smart Salting Tool and many other resources to help communities and organizations reduce salt use and protect Minnesota's water resources. Brooke earned her Master’s degree in Water Resources Science from the University of Minnesota. Her undergraduate degree is in Environmental Science with a minor in Soil Science also from the University of Minnesota. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked in the Metropolitan Council’s Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant lab. |
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