Study shows affects of road salt on local water quality

EFFINGHAM — As winter approaches, the Green Mountain Conservation Group is keeping a close watch on levels of sodium chloride, commonly known as road salt, in the streams and rivers of the Ossipee Watershed. Recent studies are showing negative effects of road salt runoff on surface waters around New Hampshire, and water quality research since 2002 also shows that this area’s streams and rivers are not immune.

One of the top concerns of water quality professionals, government officials and local residents is the impact that winter deicing and road salting can have on rivers, streams, and lakes, in addition to drinking water. Road salt runoff is a source of non-point pollution, which is caused by “rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even underground sources of drinking water” (EPA 2009). In the Ossipee Watershed, there are signs of salt impacting smaller streams in Effingham, Madison, Freedom and Ossipee. Preliminary results from a recent groundwater study showed that about a quarter of the 60 wells tested this past summer are salt-impacted, including wells in the above four towns as well as Sandwich and Tamworth.