Road deicing salts are impacting freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Centralized road salt distribution and storage facilities are loosely regulated and poorly understood. Over three years, Rebecca Tharp (Just Water Consulting, LLC) and Dana Allen (Fluid State Consulting, LLC ) have monitored the movement of salts from the Vermont Railway's Shelburne Transload Facility (STF) in the river, wetland, soils, and vegetation at two discharge points from the site as well as a control point that receives no flow from the parcel.

The findings indicate that the facility is routinely exporting salt at levels that exceed Vermont Water Quality Standards. Proper selection of monitoring point locations and media (water, soil, vegetation) is critical for identifying exceedances to water quality standards in a timely fashion.

The findings are described in an open access research article called "Assessment of deicing salt storage and distribution as a salinization point source: the influence of permitting standards on water" in the journal Environmental Systems Research.

The authors will discuss their research at a webinar on Zoom on Wednesday, December 9, noon-1pm. Registration is required. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing a link to join the webinar.

Information and registration link at: https://www.uvm.edu/seagrant/programs/events/salt-earth-vermonts-hidden-pollution-problem

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