Halving the salt: State tests show promise for reducing use on Adirondack roads

Advocates plan push for accountability legislation when lawmakers return to Albany

By Zachary Matson

The state Department of Transportation has demonstrated road salt reductions as high as 50% are possible when dealing with winter conditions.

In a series of pilots in and around the Adirondack Park, crews tested strategies to rein in salt use on icy roads, according to a mandated report on the projects.

The report documents findings that best management practices could reduce salt use by 7% to 30%. And spreading only brine to keep roads clear could lower salt use as much as 50%.

The testing was required under a 2020 law that established an expert task force to study road salt and recommend ways to limit its harms to public health and the environment.

With the report on pilot projects delivered by DOT to lawmakers and the governor at the end of August, state officials wrapped up their legal obligations under the law, which expires at the end of the year. The task force issued its report with recommendations a year ago this month.

Plans going forward and a call for accountability

In an interview, Rob Fitch, director of transportation maintenance at DOT, said the agency is committed to expanding salt reduction strategies throughout the state. He said he was heartened by the reductions demonstrated in the pilot projects.

“We are not going to issue high fives and say, ‘Great job, we are done,’” Fitch said. “We know we need to keep pushing our program and keep expanding it.”

Members of the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force said they were not involved in the study of pilot projects or provided copies of DOT’s assessment of the projects. Some raised questions about how DOT had studied effectiveness and calculated salt reductions.

Task force members and other advocates have called for new legislation to ensure accountability that salt reduction strategies and other task force recommendations are being advanced.

A coalition of groups that included the Adirondack Council, AdkAction, the Adirondack Watershed Institute and the Ausable Freshwater Center worked to get legislation introduced and passed in the state Senate last legislative session. That bill would create an interagency government committee and an outside advisory board charged with ensuring statewide implementation of the task force’s salt reduction recommendations, mirroring a structure that oversees invasive species prevention.

“If agencies feel like this is the end of legally-required action items then we need another entity that can help hold their feet to the fire,” said Sawyer Bailey, executive director of AdkAction. “We have a long way to go to really see that our water quality receives the utmost protection and that we tackle any threats to public health and private wells.”   

The bill was introduced near the end of the session, so advocates expect a more robust campaign to press for the legislation when lawmakers return to Albany next year.

What’s in the report – and not in it 

The report on the pilots suggested that “close management” of best practices such as specialized plow blades, treating roads prior to storms and post-storm review of snow removal efforts can help minimize salt use. 

Transitioning plow routes to only brine can yield even greater salt reductions, but comes with more logistical considerations. Brining loses its effectiveness in colder temperatures and widespread adoption of brining would require changes to the department’s equipment, water use and deployment of trucks during storms.

“We are going to have to rethink some of our infrastructure to do it on a wide-scale basis,” Fitch said. 

The report noted an agency initiative to outfit the statewide plow truck fleet with technology that can track salt application rates and upload that data to a central database for closer monitoring of salt use and continued optimization of application rates.

DOT also planned to expand its training on road salt’s environmental impacts, increase mandatory equipment calibration and require post-storm reviews.

“We often look at how did our roads perform. We need to look at the bigger picture of how do we achieve that, what was our salt use, and documenting that,” Fitch said.

Some task force members pointed out that the report does not provide a clear explanation of how the pilots were studied or what data DOT relied on to determine its salt reduction. 

Sexton said DOT didn’t implement all of the recommended pilot projects proposed by the task force and that the report doesn’t mention progress on other important recommendations, including establishing monitoring and targets of salt concentrations in water sources and ensuring residents affected by salt contamination know where to turn for help.

“Where’s the water quality monitoring that was recommended and where is the outreach?” Sexton asked. 

Sexton opined that DOT can’t be expected to hold itself accountable for prioritizing salt reduction and that more legislation is needed to ensure accountability.  

“There needs to be independent oversight that is more than advisory,” he said. 

Jerry Delaney, a task force member and the executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, said task force members should have been notified of the pilot assessments. 

He emphasized the importance of peer-to-peer training and said while state agencies haven’t moved as quickly as some advocates would like on the issue of salt reduction, they have started to make progress.   

“The needle got moved. In the end, [the state agencies] listened,” Delaney said. “I saw some actual movement in DOT, just not as far as everybody wanted it to go.”