Why is Collingwood So Secretive About its Salt Use?

Road salt is a huge concern in Ontario for its destructive effects on the environment and the infrastructure. Progressive municipalities across the province have been exploring alternatives for years, cutting back, looking for safer ways to manage winter roads and sidewalks. But Collingwood? Try typing “salt management plan” into the search bar of the town’s user-hostile website. Nada.

You don’t get any documents; you have to wade through more of the town’s poorly-designed click-fest web pages, trying to find simple information like “how much salt does the town use in winter.” But let me save you the effort: that information is not made public.*

There is a vague “winter maintenance” page newly posted, but it has a mere two thin lines about salt application with the bromide that,

Salt use is kept to a minimum and is spread only on main Arterial roads, whereas a mixture of sand/salt is applied to all other roads. Salt reducing measures are implemented as appropriate for environmental benefits. Our goal is to be proactive in the area while recognizing the safety of Municipal streets during slippery conditions.

But what are those “salt reducing” measures (and why is the hyphen missing)? How much is “minimum”? Which are the arterial roads and why does the town expect residents to know the difference? And how much salt has the town used in winter over the past decade? Where is the advice for homeowners or residents on how much salt to use on their own property? Even a small amount of salt that gets into our water is dangerous. Vancouver has a page about salt that says (emphasis added):

Once salt has dissolved in water, it’s always in the water. It only takes one teaspoon of road salt to permanently pollute about five gallons of water. Salt can alter the pH level of soil and water which can be bad for plants, animals, and other organisms.

Buried a long way down the page for “Greener Collingwood” you can find an acknowledgment that the town allegedly has a salt management plan. However, it seems that you, the resident and taxpayer, just aren’t allowed to see it:

The Town of Collingwood has a salt management plan that is currently under review by staff and will be presented to Council sometime later in 2023. The current plan must be reviewed in conjunction with our level of service standards to ensure that we can effectively deliver our winter maintenance services and manage the use of road salt, as outlined in Environment Canada’s Code of Practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts. The current plan is very effective, however, opportunities for improvement are being explored.

It’s so effective that staff need to keep it hidden and secret and make sure no historical data for salt use is made available. As 2023 comes to a close, I haven’t seen this alleged plan on any agenda “to be presented to council” this year.*

What I wanted to learn from reading this mysterious document was how the town uses salt, how much, and whether (and where) it is stored safely to prevent runoff as per the Ministry’s guidelines? How is snow removed from previously salted roads and other areas treated to prevent leakage or seepage (or is it merely piled onto boulevards and shoulders)? Who reports on salt use to council and how often? When street sweepers gather the roadside sand — and presumably some undissolved salt with it —  every spring, how is this stored to prevent the salt from migrating into the water? What remediation plans does the town have for soil or water damaged by salt?

I also wanted to learn whether the town had any sort of public education or outreach component in it. Does the town connect with businesses or property owners, or property management companies to advise how much salt should (or rather, shouldn’t) be used? Does it send brochures to residents and businesses about how to mitigate the damage done by excess salt? Does it ask retailliers who selt salt to advise customers on how much to use? Does it offer training for business staff who are tasked with spreading the salt? Does it do anything to contact the public about salt?

I’m going to suggest no, because if you walk downtown in winter, or on sidewalks at any local grocery store, box store, or the pseudo-malls here, you often see shoals of salt. I’ve often photographed ridges of salt 1-2 cm deep on sidewalks around businesses here (one example on the right). It’s also a painful danger to the feet of the many dogs walked on it downtown. And I’m sure that the salt used downtown hurts the trees planted along Hurontario Street. I wonder if the minimum-wage employees who spread the salt have been properly taught how much is safe to use. Or do they just throw it out by the scoopful?

A comprehensive public outreach that dealt with all these issues would require an effective communications strategy, another document not found on the town’s website. First, however, it would require a town and council that actually cares about engaging the public and the environment.

All that road salt, all the salt on sidewalks, on parking lots, on box store entranceways will get washed off and into our nearby water — local streams and the lake. The town already knows that the health of our local streams is bad. There’s a whole page for “stream health” that notes,

Currently, we know that elevated levels of oils, salts and sediments from the intensive commercial developments in Collingwood are having a negative impact…

But there isn’t a single word — NOT ONE — telling us what the town is doing to mitigate the pollution or reduce salt use in the most sensitive areas. And let’s be clear: Section 58 of the Clean Water Act requires the town to have a risk management plan for salt use. This was identified in the 2015 South Georgian Bay-Lake Simcoe Source Protection Plan (pages 122-125). But can you find a copy of that risk management plan online? Of course not.**

The University of Waterloo recently described road salt as a “forever contaminant… due to its persistence in soil and water systems.” It added, “The stakes are high when it comes to road salts: compromised drinking water, shrinking aquatic habitats and long-term pollution from legacy salt stores in soil and groundwater requiring costly remediation.”

In 2018, Conservation Ontario published a report on the Good Practices for Winter Maintenance in Salt Vulnerable Areas, but how did Collingwood respond to that report? Environment Canada has a page for the Code of practice for the environmental management of road salts. How has Collingwood complied with these guidelines? Or has the town simply ignored them all? No way to tell from the town’s secretive website. That latter page has the comment. “On average, 5 million tonnes of road salts are used each year as de-icers on roadways in Canada.” That is scary.

The threat of road salt to the environment and infrastructure made from concrete is not new. There has been a slew of media stories and research reports about it for the last decade. For example:

In December, 2022, CollingwoodToday carried a story about Conservation Ontario’s then-new campaign to alert municipalities and the public to the threat of road salt to our water, and how to use salt responsibly. True to form, local media didn’t bother to ask anyone at town hall about our own salt management plan (no surprises there). I can find no evidence from the minutes of that month that council was even aware of Conservation Ontario’s campaign (or that any local reporter even asked about local road salt use).

A recent story on The Conversation website noted:

Scientists have long known that the substance which has safeguarded us through the colder months poses a threat to aquatic life and drinking water quality. But now we are finding that this chemical also disrupts the delicate balance of oxygen and nutrients in our freshwater lakes and ponds.

The Hamilton Spectator ran a story in November, titled “Ontario has a road salt addiction. And it’s turning our rivers and lakes into saltwater, experts say.” The writer noted:

Ontario dispenses a colossal amount of salt each year, making up nearly half of all the road salt spread across Canada annually. Experts warn its overuse is turning Ontario’s vast stores of freshwater salty, threatening our ecosystem.

On CBC a recent story from Nov. 2023, titled, “Reducing road salt use ‘not something that can wait’ as Ontario lakes see oxygen depletion, researcher says,” noted,

The move to reduce the amount of road salt during the winter months can’t wait because Ontario’s groundwater and lakes are showing “very rapid salinization,” researchers at the University of Waterloo say… previous research has shown groundwater and lakes in Ontario are becoming saltier…Van Cappellen said he wants local municipalities to talk about their road salt use, setting targets such as reducing its use by 25 per cent in the next five years.

CBC also ran a story on the threat of road salt on April 11, 2017, Dec. 19, 2019, and Dec. 23, 2022. That latter story noted:

“It only takes one teaspoon of road salt to permanently pollute about five gallons (about 20 litres) of water,” the City of Vancouver states on its website. Measurements in the Toronto area have found freshwater chloride levels of 18,000 to 20,000 mg/L (sea water has about 19,250 mg/L) — far higher than the Canadian Water Quality guideline of 120 mg/L for the protection of wildlife. Some jurisdictions have experimented with alternatives, such as beet brine, to reduce the amount of salt used on roads and its negative effects.
Salt is less effective once the actual temperature (not including wind chill) drops below –10 C; if the actual temperature is below –21 C, it’s too cold for salt to do its job at all because it can’t mix with water. But if it’s warm enough to rain heavily, there’s also no point in salting.

A CBC story on Sudbury’s public campaign to get residents to use less road salt (Dec. 2022). In that latter piece, it noted:

To educate people on how to use road salt more responsibly, the Greater Sudbury Public Library has started to hand out 12-ounce, or around 340 ml, cups, which would contain enough salt to cover 10 sidewalk squares or around 500 square feet.

Toronto uses about 130,000 tonnes of road salt each winter. The Kitchener-Waterloo region uses about 140,000 tonnes of rock salt every year, but is trying to reduce that, according to a CBC story from Nov. 2022:

The annual salt dump on the region’s streets, sidewalks and parking lots affects soil quality, fish habitats, and drinking water, Hodgins said, and as the region’s population increases, the amount of salt used increases too as more roads are built.
“We’ve been implementing a pilot project on two of our parking lots — region-owned parking lots — to look at the contractor who services those and changes that they can make to reduce the amount of salt going down,” Hodgins told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.
The project, which is going into its third year, has the contractor measure the ground temperature to figure out exactly how much rock salt is needed. An excess of salt could potentially be used if contractors are relying on air temperature alone, Hodgins said.

Similar cautionary stories about the threat to our environment appeared in The Conversation on January 17, 2019, December 23, 2021, and October 17, 2022.***

TVO had an article about salt use on Ontario roads in Jan. 2018, which commented on the invasion of crabs into Mimico Creek because it had become salt enough for these oceanic creatures to survive:

The blue crab is a saltwater creature, yet six apparently healthy ones were found in the freshwater creek in 2011. And while the water wasn’t salty enough for them to breed, it made for comfortable living. The crabs’ survival illustrates a growing problem for Ontario’s waterways: the excessive salting of roads, sidewalks, and parking lots has contaminated rivers, streams, and lakes.
Salt pollution does much more than provide habitable waters for strange creatures. Increased salinity is harmful to many freshwater organisms, right down to the tiny invertebrates that underpin the entire food chain. Salt is also bad for many native plants and can contaminate groundwater.

That latter piece also notes that “more visible salt doesn’t necessarily mean more safety — especially if temperatures are cold enough to render it ineffective (sodium chloride works only between 0 C and -7 C)…  the assumption … that the more salt down, the more safety you’ll get — and that’s simply not true.” Yet the “more salt is better” attitude continues at many locations here.

This November, the Science of The Total Environment publication had an article on “Efficacy of urban road salt reduction strategies on public supply well quality” that noted:

Examples of road salt BMPs [Best Management Practices] include optimizing loading rates during applications, prewetting of dry salt with liquid brine to improve pavement adherence, the use of alternative deicing compounds such as potassium formate, employing equipment calibration, enhanced weather prediction and related decision support tools as well as adhering to a strict code of practice.

Does Collingwood do any of these? No way to know because the salt management document is not public.

The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) published a report on road salt use in 2013, saying,

There is clear evidence that safe conditions and often safer conditions can be achieved with limited salt…Excessive use of road salts can harm the environment and infrastructure. Road salts are corrosive and may cause deterioration of roadway surfaces, concrete structures, vehicles and other indoor and outdoor surfaces. Salt impacted runoff and spray can damage or kill nearby grass, trees, crops or other vegetation.

All of these are examples of discussions and warnings about and research into road salt use that goes back at least a decade, and it is still ongoing, at least outside Collingwood. But has anyone on our Council or among town staff raised the issue at the table, in public, so the community can understand both the threat to our environment and what can be done (or is being done) to mitigate it? None I can find.

Is there any public education campaign to educate Collingwood residents or businesses about responsible salt use? Do we have any programs to calculate how much salt is needed at any temperature? Does the town require anyone spreading salt on mall or downtown sidewalks to have any training, let alone certification for doing so? What about for private contractors who clear and salt private parking lots and condo roads?****

I’d say the answer is no to all of these. I can find no answers on our town’s uninformative website or from the flaccid local media.*****

All of this makes me wonder why the town is being so secretive, and so uncommunicative about its road salt management. And, of course, why the town can’t be bothered with any sort of public engagement to help residents and businesses manage their own salt use. And why no one on our council is paying attention.

Collingwood — and our environment — deserve better

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* Overall, Collingwood remains overly secretive online about its operations. The website with the agendas and minutes of council and all the committees has no search option, and the “document center” — spelled the American way! — for those meetings has no search option either. The reports folder in the document section has a mere three files, none later than Mar. 2022. The list of folders isn’t even sorted alphabetically. One wonders what those 5.33 people working full time in the IT department at a cost to taxpayers of over $1.4 million a year actually do there.

** Through its archaic 1950s vehicle-centric planning mentality, the town plans to make Third Street into another speedway for cars and trucks like Sixth Street, adding to the noise, danger, and pollution in a residential area. And with the increased traffic will come more salt that seeps into our local waterways. So I doubt there’s any real interest at town hall to help reduce pollution anywhere in town. But they sure want more cars and trucks on our streets!

*** Another story in The Conversation (April 2019) discussed the damaging effect road salt has on our concrete bridges and other infrastructure:

The chemical causing the havoc is called calcium oxycholoride – CAOXY, in chemistry shorthand – and it forms when a common type of road salt, calcium chloride, reacts with the calcium hydroxide that is an ingredient in concrete. CAOXY is a destructive component. When it forms inside concrete, it expands – creating internal distress and cracks that are then amplified by the chiseling effect of the freeze-thaw cycle.

**** Is there a special plan to manage the increased salt that will be used on the private condo parking lot once the 24-storey millionaire’s playground condo monstrosity is built on the waterfront?

***** Searching local media stories online is pretty much limited to CollingwoodToday because every attempt to search the Collingwood Connection’s parent site (Simcoe.com) produces a blank page with an error message “Too Many Requests.”

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