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<p id="byline">MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT</p>
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>From Friday's Globe and Mail
<span class="dateline">Published on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010 12:00AM EST</span>
<span class="dateline">Last updated on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010 5:37AM EST</span>
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<p><span class="first-letter">E</span>NVIRONMENT REPORTER</p>
<p>One of the most detailed investigations ever conducted in Canada
into the fate of road salt has found that it is polluting groundwater
and causing some streams during winter thaws to have salinity levels
just under those found in the ocean.</p>
<p>The elevated salt readings were detected in Pickering, where
researchers from the University of Toronto have been studying how the
salt spread on highways, such as the 401, and other roadways through
suburban sprawl affects water quality. They found that so much salty
water from the community is ending up in Frenchman's Bay, a scenic
lagoon on the shores of Lake Ontario, that the small water body is
being poisoned.</p>
<p>"Our findings are pretty dramatic, and the effects are felt
year-round," said Nick Eyles, a geology professor at the university and
the lead researcher on the project. "We now know that 3,600 tonnes of
road salt end up in that small lagoon every winter from direct runoff
in creeks and effectively poison it for the rest of the year."</p>
<p>He called the findings, which were published recently in the journal
Sedimentary Geology<i>,</i> "a really bad-news story" involving a
"relentless chemical assault on a watershed."</p>
<p>The Pickering area provided researchers with an ideal place to study
the effects of road-salt spreading, because most of the city lies
within a relatively compact 27-square-kilometre watershed, where it was
easy for pollution monitors to track where salt spread on roads ended
up.</p>
<p>About 7,600 tonnes of salt is applied each year to roads in the
community. About half of this amount seeps into groundwater, which in
turn flows into streams year-round, making the water courses more salty
than they should be, according to the research. The rest drains into
Frenchman's Bay, which is visible to commuters on the 401 and has a
struggling fish population because salt levels are more than double the
amounts typically found in the Great Lakes.</p>
<p>The salt water "knocks out fish," Dr. Eyles said, adding that in the
most contaminated areas, only older fish can survive, while younger
ones move to areas of the lagoon closer to Lake Ontario and its fresher
water.</p>
<p>The finding of major impacts on Pickering's ground and surface water
suggests a far greater toll from the use of salt elsewhere across
Canada, where an estimated five million tonnes, or approximately 150
kilograms per Canadian, is used on roads each year to make them safe
for travel in winter. The vast majority is applied in Ontario and
Quebec.</p>
<p>"It's a general problem. ... There are lots of other areas like
this," Dr. Eyles said, referring to the Pickering findings.</p>
<p>Environment Canada has recognized that salt has adverse impacts on
wildlife, plants, water and soil, and in 2001 considered adding it to
the country's list of the most toxic substances. Instead, in 2004, the
government instituted a voluntary code of practices to encourage
municipalities and others to use the de-icer more sparingly, while
maintaining highway safety. But with the vast amount used, huge
quantities are still polluting soil and water, according to Dr. Eyles.</p>
<p>"It's a toxic material and yet we continue to throw it with gay
abandon on our roads," he said.</p>
<p>The University of Toronto research was based on water monitoring
between May, 2002, and March, 2003, before the code went into effect.</p>
<p>It noted that after winter thaws, there were spikes in the amount of
salt in streams, with those taking runoff from the 401 having
approximately double the concentration of the pollutant than
watercourses nearby that don't take its storm water. Runoff from the
highway, Canada's busiest, also contains benzene, toluene, and xylene,
hydrocarbons associated with contamination from underground gasoline
storage tanks.</p>
<p>Environment Canada says it is currently reviewing whether the
voluntary practices code has led to any reduction in the amount of salt
being spread on roads. "If it is concluded, based on the review of
progress, that other steps are needed for the management of road salts,
Environment Canada will consider a range of possible options," the
department said in reaction to the study.</p>
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