Road Salt Contamination in Freshwater Systems
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Advisor
Gregory Pope
Access Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2024 12:45 PM
End Date
26-4-2024 1:45 PM
Description
In the state of New Jersey, there has been an issue with using road salt as an agent to melt snow/ice. The township of Montclair NJ complained about it and said that the level of road salt that gets washed up into freshwater systems hurts the reproduction, growth, and survival of aquatic life. The problem with using road salt is that when it melts, the runoff will have a high amount of sodium chloride (NaCl), which will get into freshwater systems and affect them. Montclair wants a sustainable way to make roads/sidewalks more manageable to protect freshwater systems, human health, and aquatic ecosystems. I’m researching how road salt affects the biodiversity in freshwater, how it will affect them, and if there are other alternatives to use. Better options exist than road salts such as beet juice brine and sand/gravel. Sand and Gravel wouldn't be the best solution as a deicing agent but using beet juice brine is promising. How I’m testing this is having different test groups of water from a local pond in Montclair and testing each group with beet juice, salt, and sand/gravel and see how it's affected and testing ice to see how quickly the materials will melt. My expected findings are within a week I hope to see the plants die in the NaCl solution. The beet juice and gravel sample should survive. I expect the beet juice and the NaCl to melt the ice but not the sand or gravel.
Road Salt Contamination in Freshwater Systems
In the state of New Jersey, there has been an issue with using road salt as an agent to melt snow/ice. The township of Montclair NJ complained about it and said that the level of road salt that gets washed up into freshwater systems hurts the reproduction, growth, and survival of aquatic life. The problem with using road salt is that when it melts, the runoff will have a high amount of sodium chloride (NaCl), which will get into freshwater systems and affect them. Montclair wants a sustainable way to make roads/sidewalks more manageable to protect freshwater systems, human health, and aquatic ecosystems. I’m researching how road salt affects the biodiversity in freshwater, how it will affect them, and if there are other alternatives to use. Better options exist than road salts such as beet juice brine and sand/gravel. Sand and Gravel wouldn't be the best solution as a deicing agent but using beet juice brine is promising. How I’m testing this is having different test groups of water from a local pond in Montclair and testing each group with beet juice, salt, and sand/gravel and see how it's affected and testing ice to see how quickly the materials will melt. My expected findings are within a week I hope to see the plants die in the NaCl solution. The beet juice and gravel sample should survive. I expect the beet juice and the NaCl to melt the ice but not the sand or gravel.