Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 30 January 2018

Turning to beet juice and beer to address road salt danger

By MICHAEL CASEY study that showed how
Associated Press road salt also results in the
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — release of other salts like
Experts who fear road salt potassium and magnesium
is starting to take a toll on along with toxic metals
the nation’s waterways like lead and copper into
are turning to beet juice, the nation’s waterways.
molasses, and even beer Dubbed the freshwater sa-
or cheese waste to make linization syndrome, Kaush-
them safer. al said this has caused a
Tossed onto sidewalks and spike in salinity and alkaline
dumped onto highways, levels at nearly 230 sites
salt for decades has pro- in the East and Midwest
vided the cheapest and including the Hudson, Po-
most effective way to cut tomac, and Mississippi riv-
down on traffic accidents ers.
and pedestrian falls during Experiments at the Rens-
winter storms. selaer Polytechnic Institute
But researchers cite mount- aquatic lab in Troy, New
ing evidence that those York, have found that high-
tons of sodium chloride er salt concentrations re-
crystals — more than 20 mil- duced growth rates in rain-
lion nationwide each year bow trout and decreased
— are increasing the sa- the abundance of zoo-
linity of hundreds of lakes, In this Jan. 16, 2017 file photo, a city truck spreads salt on Q Street in Lincoln, Neb. plankton — tiny animals
especially in the Northeast Associated Press or larvae that are critical
and Midwest. That’s put- to the aquatic food chain
ting everything from fish and play a role in keeping
and frogs to microscopic shire, salt became the go- that help salt stick to pave- Salt corrosion already lakes and streams clean.
zooplankton at risk. to de-icing agent as cities ment. That reduces salt use causes billions of dollars Other studies have shown
“There has been a sense expanded, highways were by preventing it from wash- in damage each year to that salinization of lakes
of alarm on the impacts of built and motorists came to ing away immediately. cars, roads and bridges — and streams reduces the
road salt on organisms and expect clear roads. More Agencies from New Jersey and now there are grow- numbers of fish and am-
ecosystems,” said Victoria than a million truckloads a to North Dakota are using a ing signs it’s making fresh- phibians, kills off plants, and
Kelly, a road salt expert at year are deployed in ice- mixture that includes beet water ecosystems saltier. alters the diversity of these
the Cary Institute of Eco- prone climes, most heavily juice; New Hampshire and In the past 50 years, chlo- freshwater ecosystems.“At
system Studies in New York. in the Northeast and Mid- Maine use one with molas- ride concentrations in high road salt concentra-
“We’ve seen increasing west. ses. Highway departments some lakes and rivers qua- tions, you can see reduc-
concentrations in river wa- But many state and local also have turned to beer drupled and, in a few, in- tions in growth, reduction
ter, lakes, streams. Then, agencies are seeking ways waste, pickle brine and, creased a hundredfold. in the diversity of species
scientists started asking the to reduce salt use as its en- in at least one Wisconsin Last year, a study in the within a system and you
question: What is going to vironmental impacts are county, cheese brine. Proceedings of the Nation- can also see effects on re-
happen to the organisms becoming more apparent. “Adding salt to the environ- al Academy of Sciences production of certain spe-
living in freshwater bodies They have turned to high- ment does have negative concluded that more than cies,” said William Hintz, of
and what will happen to tech equipment to spread impacts, but for those of 40 percent of 327 lakes ex- Rensselaer Polytechnic.
the freshwater bodies as a salt more efficiently, bet- us in the Northeast, espe- amined had experienced Despite such environmen-
whole?” ter weather forecasting to cially in rural states, where long-term salinization, and tal concerns, Caleb Dob-
Believed to be first used in time their salting, and liq- driving is the predominant that thousands more were bins, New Hampshire’s
the 1940s in New Hamp- uefied organic additives way of getting around, we at a risk. Researchers also highway maintenance
need mobility,” said Jona- estimated nearly 50 lakes engineer, doesn’t envision
than Rubin, director of the in the study, including small salt being replaced any-
Margaret Chase Smith Poli- ones in Minnesota, Wiscon- time soon by substitutes,
cy Center and lead author sin and Rhode Island, could such as magnesium ace-
on a 2010 report on the surpass the Environmental tate, which he says are 30
cost and benefits of salting Protection Agency’s chlo- times more expensive and
Maine roads. ride threshold concentra- have their own environ-
“In my opinion, we are al- tion by 2050, potentially mental challenges.
ways going to be using harming aquatic life. “Everybody is looking
some degree of road salt,” Earlier this month, the Uni- throughout the world,” he
he said. “The question is, versity of Maryland’s Sujay said. “Nobody is finding
can we use less?” Kaushal led another PNAS that silver bullet.”q