State advances (some) salt task force recommendations
State officials last month announced millions of dollars of funding for wastewater plants, historic building restoration and dam repairs. The largesse included $15 million statewide for improved road salt storage and to help municipalities advance salt reduction strategies.
Department of Environmental Conservation Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar on the agency’s podcast this week outlined steps taken to make good on recommendations from the Adirondack Road Salt Task Force.
By tweaking an existing water quality grant program to support municipal salt reduction efforts, the state started to earmark more money to communities working to minimize their winter salt use.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is and helping to finance and drive what we need to see in these practices across the state,” Mahar said in the podcast conversation with other DEC officials and scientists.
They discussed other areas of progress, highlighting Department of Transportation projects that showed brine use can help reduce salt use and previewing new messaging around road salt pollution and best practices. The agency plans to soon roll out a public education campaign under the moniker, “Don’t be salty, New York!” DEC scientists are also working on a study of potential road salt impacts to groundwater sources throughout the state.
Mahar, who has been leading the agency since April, joked about hitching a ride in one of DOT’s plows. “That’s been my boyhood dream, to hang out in a plow truck,” he said.
Since the task force released its report in September 2023, both DEC and DOT have made tangible progress on some of some of the task force recommendations, while it remains unclear what, if any progress, has been made on others.
During the podcast, there was no update on a recommendation to establish a clear process for residents with salt contaminated wells to get support and remediation from the state or a proposal to improve salt use data transparency. The task force also called for tying salt reduction targets directly to thresholds known to harm aquatic life. DEC is soliciting public input into an update of water quality standards that could establish the state’s first chloride standard for aquatic environments – but it’s not clear how a new threshold would impact salt concentration levels found in the Adirondacks.
More on that other $$$
The state money announced before Christmas, a mix of water quality and economic development grants, will benefit communities throughout the Adirondacks.
The grants will help repair dams, expand composting programs, renovate historic buildings and advance costly water infrastructure projects.
My colleague Gwen Craig has the latest on funding to update the hydropower components of the former Paul Smith’s Electric Light and Power building, the same building the Adirondack Park Agency has eyed as a potential new home.
Top photo: A common Adirondack sight this time of year. Explorer file photo.
This first appeared in Zach’s weekly “Water Line” newsletter. Click here to sign up.
Moved back in 2014 and there were serious discussions about oversalting and effects on ground water, watersheds, vegetation, and property back then. How are we 11 years on and this is STILL being debated? Road salt bad, alternatives available. We’re approaching Dickensian levels of delay at this point.