Pass the salt

Laurie Varga doesn’t like road salt. Toronto uses 201 salt trucks to distribute between 130,000 and 150,000 tonnes of the stuff annually over 5100 km of roads and 8200 kim of sidewalks. We have to do something to make our winter roads safe, right? But a five-year assessment by Environment Canada determined that in sufficient concentrations, road salts pose a risk to plants, animals, birds, lakes, ecosystems and groundwater and should be considered toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (EPA).

Salt and deicing chemicals are carried by melting snow and ice onto vegetation and into soils and eventually into local rivers, streams, and other bodies of water. Some salts are transported directly to surface waters through drainage systems (check out our previous post on the subject for more info and alternatives).

Varga wants to do something about it. Through LobbyThem, a site dedicated to the idea that everyone should have a voice in government, she’s asking that road and sidewalk salts be banned from use in Toronto and that an environmentally friendly alternative be employed as it is in other cities (Calgary uses sand and pea gravel on roadways and sidewalks). Register for LobbyThem and join Varga in pushing for change by effectively telling politicians and other decision-makers how important this issue is.