NEWS RELEASE
WELLINGTON WATERWATCHERS
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This World Water Day (March 22), people across Ontario are fighting to keep freshwater fresh. From Muskoka to Mississauga, Sudbury to Simcoe, rivers, lakes, and groundwater are suffering from salt pollution. Despite decades of fierce advocacy from eNGOs, this problem is just getting worse.
A new coalition of individuals, grassroots groups, and environmental organizations are calling for change to road salt practices and regulation in Ontario. “We’ve seen years of inaction on this critical water protection issue in Ontario. The Ontario Salt Pollution Coalition is working together to pursue the action we need,” shared Dani Lindamood of Water Watchers, who is coordinating the coalition. “This is a nonpartisan issue that Ontarians care about deeply. We’ve already had over 1000 submissions to Ministers and MPPs in support of our salt pollution action agenda.”
The proliferation of road salt (or sodium chloride) in freshwater lakes presents a multi-faceted problem where environmental, public health, and economic concerns converge. While road salt effectively clears icy roads, the salty runoff into freshwater systems degrades water quality, endangers drinking water sources, jeopardizes aquatic life, and damages ecosystems. Elevated chloride levels can be toxic to fish, insects, and amphibians, disrupting the delicate balance of our waterways. Furthermore, salt corrodes infrastructure from bridges to plumbing systems, incurring costly repairs. The contamination risk to drinking water is perhaps the most alarming, as high sodium and chloride levels can affect taste and pose health hazards, particularly for those with blood pressure and heart issues.
“Municipal drinking water sources based on groundwater are being significantly impacted by salt in many parts of Ontario,” says Peter Miasek, a member of the Source Protection Committee for Central Lake Ontario, Toronto and Credit Valley. “For example, about a dozen municipal supply wells in Orangeville are seeing increases in sodium and chloride contamination. Similarly, in Waterloo Region, about half of the 24 municipal drinking water supply wells are showing increases in sodium and/or chloride. As treatment to remove salt is cost-prohibitive, municipal water providers have to engage in a costly effort to find other, non-polluted well locations.”
Salt isn’t just a problem for the environment and drinking water: the lack of current regulations are also creating major liability problems for salt applicators and businesses. The Coalition is working in allyship with Landscape Ontario, an industry association that includes the snow and ice management sector, who are seeking better standards and regulations. To create a win-win-win for public safety, the economy, and the environment, Landscape Ontario is seeking legislative change and the establishment of regulated technical standards for winter salts with Coalition support. Road salt reduction begins by reforming the current liability system and creating standards for salt application.
The Ontario Salt Pollution Coalition supports these actions and also asserts we need specific policies focused on water protection. The Coalition urges the province of Ontario to create an expert stakeholder advisory committee to advise on the best course of action to protect freshwater ecosystems from the impacts of salt. Scientists have recently demonstrated that different types of lakes (ie. surrounded by rock in the Canadian Shield, or by softer soils like at Lake Simcoe) react differently to salt pollution and need different sodium chloride limits. Different water quality targets and tactics will be needed to protect water, so many different kinds of experts are needed to inform the policy.
Claire Malcolmson, Executive Director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, believes that public pressure on Ontario’s Minister of Environment Andrea Khanjin (MPP for Barrie - Innisfil) and Doug Downey, (Attorney General and MPP for Barrie - Springwater - Oro-Medonte), is key . “These Ministers could demonstrate their love for Lake Simcoe by regulating this now. We are in crisis. With the government’s aggressive sprawl and road building agenda, this problem will absolutely get worse. It is on them to adhere to the Canada-Ontario Great Lakes Agreement and Ontario’s Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, to manage emerging contaminants,” she says. Malcolmson reports, “At Lake Simcoe, at least five rivers chronically exceed the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment long-term chloride guideline for the protection of aquatic life. It’s bad.”
The Coalition sent Minister Khanjin an introductory letter today outlining their concerns and calls for action and are eagerly awaiting the Minister’s response. OSPC coordinator Dani Lindamood adds, “Ultimately, our Premier Doug Ford has the final say on what the Ministries will work on, so we’re circulating our submissions to Doug’s office as well. He needs to know Ontarians are demanding action on salt pollution, once and for all. Water is life and we have to protect it.”
For interested groups and members of the public, the OSPC invites people to:
- learn more here;
- dig deep into the issue with a great collection of facts here;
- endorse the campaign online;
- send a letter to provincial officials and your MPP here
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