Volunteers monitoring road salt impacts on waterways across Wisconsin

By: Kris Stepenuck, DNR Bureau of Watershed Management
Reprinted from "MyDNR Digest" edited by Diane Brinson

The goal: collect high quality data on the impact of road salt on water quality conditions for aquatic organisms, while on a limited budget.

In fall 2010, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researcher Steve Corsi approached DNR's and UW-Extension's Water Action Volunteers (WAV) Stream Monitoring Program about developing a monitoring program that would enable volunteers to assist in studying the impacts of road salt on urban streams.

Corsi and his colleagues recently had found that some streams were toxic to fish and other aquatic life due to excessive salt washed from nearby roads during  winter months. The results of their study can be found in the journal "Environmental Science and Technology," available through the USGS website.

In February 2011, WAV's co-coordinator, Christina Anderson and I, trained 21 volunteers from the Milwaukee and Madison areas to monitor specific conductance levels in the field and collect water samples, which the State Lab of Hygiene would analyze for chloride.

Through the next month, volunteers monitored a total of 33 sites every other week, plus on "triggered" days when road salt was spread or specific conductance levels were known to be high in streams continually monitored by USGS.

Volunteers continued monitoring monthly April through November to assess if there were differences in specific conductance or chloride levels during winter salting months versus those months when communities use no salt.

The volunteers monitored more than 320 times collectively. To read about the results, go to the "Stream Monitoring News Summer 2011" newsletter.

Unfortunately, of the 33 sites monitored, eight exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acute standards and 14 exceeded EPA chronic chloride levels during the winter months. This means salting that helps keep us safe on the roads and sidewalks is potentially harmful to fish, insects and other life in our streams.

Study partnership ongoing during winter of 2011-12

Based on results as of November 2011, project staff selected Madison and Milwaukee area sites to continue monitoring this winter. In addition, the project was expanded to other urban areas in the state including Eau Claire, the Fox Valley and Wausau.

So far, Wisconsin's minimal winter precipitation has meant volunteers are collecting regularly-scheduled data every other week, but haven't yet been triggered to do extra monitoring due to road salting.. This could change, however, depending on the weather.

This pile of salt was left sitting outside the Tommy Thompson Office Building, located just blocks from Lake Monona in downtown Madison.

The project has been successful not only in determining sites with water quality concerns, but in terms of partnerships among volunteers, students and local organizations.

A good example of cooperation can be found through Milwaukee Riverkeeper's support of local monitors. The organization helps recruit volunteer; hosted the initial training; acts as a central drop off point for chloride samples; and coordinates with volunteers to meet their equipment needs and answer site questions.

Additionally, a UW-Madison Geography Department intern assisted with the project design, monitoring and data analyses in 2011. A UW-Oshkosh Environmental Studies Department intern will assist with the project this winter.

In the soon-to-be-added urban areas, DNR biologists, UW-Extension natural resource educators, and city employees have assisted with site selection. More-and-more volunteers are stepping up to assist with the monitoring. In addition to current WAV monitors, joining the effort are students and teachers from several University of Wisconsin campuses, Carthage College near Kenosha, and high schools in these communities.

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Footnote: Kris Stepenuck is DNR's Water Action Volunteer coordinator and liaison to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW-Extension Environmental Resources Center.