Too Much Salt
As a kid, I liked to play with rock salt. I can remember during the winters taking a bucket out to our back patio (full of ice) and making patterns with the salt, then coming back later to check out the etchings made in the sheet of ice. I found ways to carve out little fjords and send rivers to our font gutters (I was industrious). And of course, our hand crank ice cream maker was magically chilled by that super-power of salt to drop the temperature of the ice cubes we were using. Oh the challenge of holding my hand in that super cold water!
I didn't have much understanding of the all the other impacts salt was having on the water and soil around me, even though I do have some vague notion that it was taught in my middle school and high school chemistry classes. Later, when I was actually playing the role of a middle school science teacher for an alternative school, I found myself re-learning some of the basic qualities of solutions, bonds, and chemical reactions. And when a group of students and I took on the role of water testers at Lake Pepin, looking for nitrates and phosphates entering from a stream that had run through miles of agricultural land, it was not too surprising that chlorides (salts) showed up in unhealthy levels to the fish and aquatic plants of the Lake Pepin as well.
However, it was my course as a Minnesota Water Steward, that finally provided the "now it makes sense" connections for where salt fit into the equation of water quality. Through the team at Freshwater Society, we were provided with the full impacts of salt in water. Just a tablespoon of salt will render a gallon of water unhealthy for many of our freshwater plants and animals. Dilution isn't a solution, because even small amounts of salt can be harmful to many aquatic species. Sadly, our water treatment plants aren't able to remove all the salt so it ends up in our drinking water, damaging pipes, as well as impacting our own health. Even more sadly, salt doesn't break down in lakes or wetlands, once introduced, salt doesn't leave a body of water.
Understanding this really changed my practices around using salt for "snow and ice" control. As a commercial business, there are actually city ordinances around having clear sidewalks, so most businesses rely on snow removal services to clear their walkways and parking areas. However, most snow removal companies rely on salt to do the work of keeping walkways clear of ice and snow. Fortunately, our state (home of 10,000 lakes/named for its sky-blue waters) has been working diligently to reduce salt use and to teach safer use of salt for ice clearing through a program called Low Salt / No Salt. Alternative chemicals have been introduced (still chemicals however) and lots of research has helped show how little salt is necessary to do the work we want it to do.
For those of you who have known Butter Bakery Cafe over the years, you're likely aware that I love to shovel snow. It helps that I get to the shop very early, before overnight snow has been tramped down, making it easier to shovel. It's true that most of the snow removal companies that have been assigned to the building I rent just don't get there before we're hoping to be open. My plan: a clean, clear sidewalk doesn't need salt, so just shovel it clear. If you remember the heavy Christmas snow of 2010 that caused lots of issues with packed ice sidewalks, my early visit to the cafe, and the chance to shovel it clear, meant that the space in front of the bakery was the only clear sidewalk on the block for months.
Ever since I've been on the corner of 37th and Nicollet, I've been trying my best to create a boulevard of native plantings. One of things that has been a huge challenge for these plants is the amount of salt and other chemicals spread on the sidewalks and streets. I've been asking my landlord to allow my section of the sidewalk to be a "no-salt zone" but it's a difficult ask. The snow removal service crews change often and getting this message out to them doesn't seem to fit into their routines and training. So, I do my best to scrape the sidewalks clear so that there won't be a need for salting, and then I go out later and sweep up the salt that does get tossed down anyways.
If you read my January blog (Mopping Up) - you know a bit about my efforts to care for our floors at the cafe. What I failed to mention (since we hadn't actually had any snow up until then) is that after a snowfall, mopping is a bear. It is amazing how much of the salt that was out on the sidewalk ends up inside the cafe. We sweep it up throughout the day and before we mop, we sweep up some more. And even so, there seems to be salt everywhere. Some days we end up changing our mop water several times so that we're not mopping with salty water.
Last week was Winter Salt Week - and with our crazy weather patterns it was kind of "not a thing" to be thinking about using salt, but with February's startup of snow and more snow to come, it is indeed time to think. If we care about clean, drinkable and livable water, we need to be smarter about using less salt and finding ways to go with no salt.
Lots of resources are available through Freshwater Society as well as through local watershed management organizations. And I'm always happy to wear my water steward hat to share more. Please join me in making the Green Path we walk one that is a low salt / no salt path.