Winter Salt Week

Winter Salt Awareness Week (January 27-31) is a collaboration of governmental and non-governmental organizations across the United States and Canada.

• Join a 30-minute livestream each day at 12:30 p.m. (CDT) the week of January 27-30; experts will be diving into chloride trends, effects, work being done and solutions to using less chloride. (Register to receive links to the livestream events.)
• Take part in a local community event on January 31. 

Schedule

• January 27: An eye on salt pollution (Abby Hileman, Salt Watch Coordinator at the Izaak Walton League of America)
  Road salt keeps us safe on roads and sidewalks, but it can also pose a threat to fish and wildlife as well as human health. Fish and bugs that live in freshwater streams can’t survive in extra salty water. Water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out the extra salt, so it can end up in your tap water and even corrode your pipes. Since 2018, the Izaak Walton League Salt Watch program has been mobilizing community scientists across the nation to monitor levels of chloride (road salt) in their local waterways and advocate for smarter salting practices. 
• January 28: Dilution is not the solution (Dr. Jess Hua, Associate professor at UW-Madison’s Forest and wildlife ecology department)
  Our understanding around how salt affects freshwater communities continues to evolve. As scientists across disciplines come together to study this pollutant, their work is revealing a host of ecological complexities and cascading impacts. This talk will highlight how “sublethal” concentrations of salt can still be harmful to wildlife and how other environmental factors (predators and water chemistry) can alter the effects of salt on wildlife.
• January 29: Public works perspective (municipal agency staff across the country are presenting in separate livestreams; see schedule) 
  Hear directly from state and local agency staff about recent successes and challenges in transitioning to newer technologies and adopting policy changes.
  At 12:30 p.m. CDT, Darin Ellingson, Public Works Street & Park Operations Manager at the City of Minnetonka, Minn., will discuss the work of the city to reduce salt use, including the use of brine.
• January 30: Policy solutions panel (Ted Diers, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services)
  In this 30-minute "lightning round" of presentations followed by Q&A, learn from innovative policy solutions to address various facets of the salt pollution problem: New Hampshire Green SnowPro program that provides limited liability protection to trained applicators, the H2Ohio Chloride Reduction grant program, and the Low Salt, No Salt Minnesota campaign.
• January 31: Community events
  Winter Salt Week partner agencies are hosting local monitoring events across the country. Meet up in person to learn more about ongoing monitoring efforts, salt-impacted waterways, and chloride reduction efforts. Look for the local events schedule on the Winter Salt Week homepage, and sign up for free test strips through the Izaak Walton League Salt Watch program to monitor a stream in your community.
  
  MPCA is hosting a free, 2-hour Smart Salting for Community Leaders workshop starting at 11 a.m. This online, interactive workshop will help participants understand the impacts of chloride on infrastructure and water resources and provide specific action steps to make policy changes in their communities to reduce salt pollution. (This is a separate registration from Winter Salt Week)