salt brine from county roads
#1 Guest_CATfishTONY_*
Posted 04 February 2011 - 06:47 PM
#2 Guest_jblaylock_*
Posted 04 February 2011 - 06:55 PM
#3 Guest_ashtonmj_*
Posted 04 February 2011 - 07:50 PM
#4 Guest_rjmtx_*
Posted 04 February 2011 - 08:44 PM
You might find something in google scholar with a search like "road salt stream fish" or something like that.
#5 Guest_donkeyman876_*
Posted 04 February 2011 - 09:47 PM
#6 Guest_FirstChAoS_*
Posted 05 February 2011 - 03:26 AM
It's not good. I just saw a talk on it in AFS in Nashville in 2009. It does what is expected and causes salt levels to rise killing off more sensitive fish and making streams habitable for a few hardy generalists. That's the broad-stroke answer.
I wonder if salmonoids are affected or not. Usually most environmental changes effect them strongly, but many salmonoids have sea run forms that tolerate salt naturally as well.
#7 Guest_mikez_*
Posted 05 February 2011 - 09:04 AM
Also, it's very expensive so this year with the record snows, towns that normally use it are holding back because their winter snow budget is already blown out.
Good for the environment no doubt, but road conditions this winter have been a nightmare with record number of accidents and at least two vehicles going off bridges.
BTW, I don't know if they still do but the Army used to use pure crystal rock salt instead of whatever the gray stuff most towns use. It was cool, you could pick up off the road big chunks of crystal totally clear as glass. I had one in a window for a few years and it gradually just shrank and changed shape as it reacted with invisible moisture in the air.
#8 Guest_Adigiaap_*
Posted 05 February 2011 - 02:38 PM
News article: http://www.usgs.gov/...9&from=rss_home
Publication: http://pubs.acs.org/....1021/es101333u
Here's the abstract:
A new perspective on the severity of aquatic toxicity impact of road salt was gained by a focused research effort directed at winter runoff periods. Dramatic impacts were observed on local, regional, and national scales. Locally, samples from 7 of 13 Milwaukee, Wisconsin area streams exhibited toxicity in Ceriodaphnia dubia and Pimephales promelas bioassays during road-salt runoff. Another Milwaukee stream was sampled from 1996 to 2008 with 72% of 37 samples exhibiting toxicity in chronic bioassays and 43% in acute bioassays. The maximum chloride concentration was 7730 mg/L. Regionally, in southeast Wisconsin, continuous specific conductance was monitored as a chloride surrogate in 11 watersheds with urban land use from 6.0 to 100%. Elevated specific conductance was observed between November and April at all sites, with continuing effects between May and October at sites with the highest specific conductance. Specific conductance was measured as high as 30 800 μS/cm (Cl ) 11 200 mg/L). Chloride concentrations exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) acute (860 mg/L) and chronic (230 mg/L) water-quality criteria at 55 and 100% of monitored sites, respectively. Nationally, U.S. Geological Survey historical data were examined for 13 northern and 4 southern metropolitan areas. Chloride concentrations exceeded USEPA water-quality criteria at 55% (chronic) and 25% (acute) of the 168 monitoring locations in northern metropolitan areas from November to April. Only 16% (chronic) and 1% (acute) of sites exceeded criteria from May to October. At southern sites, very few samples exceeded chronic water quality criteria, and no samples exceeded acute criteria.
#9 Guest_iseetheruins_*
Posted 06 February 2011 - 10:49 AM
link to article:
Abstract:IMPACTS OF ROAD DEICING SALT ON THE DEMOGRAPHY OF VERNAL POOL-BREEDING AMPHIBIANS
Deicing agents, primarily road salt, are applied to roads in 26 states in the United States and in a number of European countries, yet the scale of impacts of road salt on aquatic organisms remains largely under-studied. The issue is germane to amphibian conservation because both adult and larval amphibians are known to be particularly sensitive to changes in their osmolar environments. In this study, we combined survey, experimental, and demographic modeling approaches to evaluate the possible effects of road salt on two common vernal-pond-breeding amphibian species, the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) and the wood frog (Rana sylvatica). We found that in the Adirondack Mountain Region of New York (USA), road salt traveled up to 172 m from the highway into wetlands. Surveys showed that egg mass densities of spotted salamanders (A. maculatum) and wood frogs (R. sylvatica) were two times higher in forest pools than roadside pools, but this pattern was better explained by road proximity than by increased salinity. Experiments demonstrated that embryonic and larval survival were reduced at moderate (500 μS) and high conductivities (3000 μS) in A. maculatum and at high conductivities in R. sylvatica. Demographic models suggest that such egg and larval stage effects of salt may have important impacts on populations near roads, particularly in the case of A. maculatum, for which salt exposure may lead to local extinction. For both species, the effect of road salt was dependent upon the strength of larval density dependence and declined rapidly with distance from the roadside, with the greatest negative effects being limited to within 50 m. Based on this evidence, we argue that efforts to protect local populations of A. maculatum and R. sylvatica in roadside wetlands should, in part, be aimed at reducing application of road salt near wetlands with high conductivity levels.
#10 Guest_zackdmb_*
Posted 06 February 2011 - 09:54 PM
#11 Guest_az9_*
Posted 06 February 2011 - 10:25 PM
Edited by az9, 06 February 2011 - 10:26 PM.
#12 Guest_mikez_*
Posted 07 February 2011 - 06:06 PM
As far as fish it odd NACL is considered the aspirin of aquaculture and we routinely add it to our fish tanks and hauling water to reduce osmotic stress. I keep a 0.2 percent solution constant in my bluegill and yellow perch tanks with no problems whatsoever. That's 2 parts per thousand or 2000 mg/l. The bacteria in the tanks has non problem with it either, but fish parasites do.
Generally speaking I think the fish deal with the road salt pretty well. It seems amphibians are hardest hit. Probably inverts too but they aren't as visible.
I think the worse thing is the big pulse that invades the habitat after a large thaw.
#13 Guest_Adigiaap_*
Posted 07 February 2011 - 08:26 PM
As far as fish it odd NACL is considered the aspirin of aquaculture and we routinely add it to our fish tanks and hauling water to reduce osmotic stress. I keep a 0.2 percent solution constant in my bluegill and yellow perch tanks with no problems whatsoever. That's 2 parts per thousand or 2000 mg/l. The bacteria in the tanks has non problem with it either, but fish parasites do.
Found this which references the sensitivity of different fish (some much more sensitive than others) -- and the impact on the rest of the food chain, which might be the most significant (if indirect) impact on fish. Potassium salts also can also cause eutrophication where potassium is limiting.
http://www.newyorkwa...ENTANIMPACT.cfm
"Reports of chloride concentrations in highway runoff run as high as 19,135 mg/l. Salt tolerance of fishes ranges from 400 to 30,000 mg/l, greater than the salt concentration of seawater. A seven-day exposure of 1,000 mg/l is lethal to rainbow trout (NRC, 1991). While an estimated 10% of aquatic species will exceed their critical tolerance values for chloride with prolonged exposure to concentrations above 220 mg/l, many of the macroinvertebrates upon which the more tolerant species feed might exhibit lower tolerances. Stream studies in northern New York revealed that benthic diversity decreases as salinity increases and dominance of salt-tolerant invertebrates is synchronous with periods of road-salt application. Salinity stresses the periphyton community upon which benthic grazers forage and inhibits microbial processing of leaf litter (EC, 2000). Reduction of primary productivity causes repercussions at the top of the food chain in addition to the stress salinity imposes on the organisms themselves. The presence of salt in aquatic ecosystems also releases toxic metals from sediment into the water column and impairs distribution and cycling of oxygen and nutrients."
#14 Guest_nativeplanter_*
Posted 10 February 2011 - 05:17 PM
Sand isn't exactly a cure-all either - can deposit in the waterways and fill wetlands if not managed carefully. Cleaning out catch basins helps, but only in urban areas that have them!
#15 Guest_farmertodd_*
Posted 10 February 2011 - 05:48 PM
But this is one that I just don't have a clear answer in my head. As Mike pointed out, if we don't do something with the roads, people die - and that's not anyway to gain momentum for doing the "green" thing. I guess it's just argument for concentrated development (and thus concentrated impacts) as resources dwindle, and tire chains for all the rest
Todd
#16 Guest_CATfishTONY_*
Posted 10 February 2011 - 06:02 PM
thank you to all for the time to reply.Oh yeah, Laura, go to Google Scholar and put in "phragmites road salt". It's absolutely awful here in northern Ohio and to some extent, southern Michigan. Ohio has been second to none in road salt application. They've backed off with the recent downturn in our economic situation, but it's still pretty intense.
But this is one that I just don't have a clear answer in my head. As Mike pointed out, if we don't do something with the roads, people die - and that's not anyway to gain momentum for doing the "green" thing. I guess it's just argument for concentrated development (and thus concentrated impacts) as resources dwindle, and tire chains for all the rest
Todd
next time i have a quick ? i will first do a little research
i never thought something as simple as salt would have such a wide impact on our states ecosystems.
#17 Guest_farmertodd_*
Posted 10 February 2011 - 09:34 PM
Todd
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