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Tracking Road Salt to Protect Adirondack Streams

Each winter, road salt helps keep Adirondack roads safe. When the snow melts, that salt can wash into nearby streams and groundwater, where it can persist for decades and harm aquatic life and drinking water supplies.

For years, AdkAction has worked with municipalities across the Adirondacks to reduce road salt use while maintaining safe winter travel. Through our Clean Water, Safe Roads Network, towns have adopted more efficient and environmentally responsible winter road maintenance practices. Now, we are building on that work by pairing salt reduction with scientific monitoring to better understand local water conditions.

This year, AdkAction is collaborating with the Ausable Freshwater Center (AFC) on a stream monitoring project in the towns of Peru and Harrietstown, funded by the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

Why Monitoring Matters

Road salt is increasingly recognized as a major regional pollutant. In the Adirondacks, salt pollution has grown dramatically since the 1980s and now exceeds the impacts once caused by acid rain. As salt accumulates in surface water and groundwater, it can alter water chemistry and affect fish, aquatic insects, and drinking water sources.

While many communities are taking steps to reduce salt use, they often lack the local data needed to understand existing conditions or measure the effects of those changes. This project helps fill that gap.

How the Project Works

AFC is monitoring several streams in Peru and Harrietstown that flow near locally maintained roads. At each site, small probes are placed in the stream to continuously measure water conductivity, which is a reliable indicator of salt levels. Reference sites upstream of road crossings help establish background conditions, while additional field checks and lab analysis improve accuracy.

Over time, this data will help show how salt moves through streams and how local road practices may influence water quality.

Collaboration for Clean Water

This project reflects AdkAction’s long-standing role as a convener and problem-solver on road salt issues. Our partnerships with municipalities laid the groundwork, and AFC’s scientific expertise ensures the data collected is meaningful and actionable.

Together, this work will help communities make informed decisions that protect clean water while keeping roads safe. We look forward to sharing what we learn as the project continues.

 

Photo Credit: Marque Moffett/Ausable Freshwater Center

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