{"id":4562,"date":"2023-11-07T09:52:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elbowlakecentre.ca\/?post_type=quills-posts&p=4562"},"modified":"2023-12-06T08:24:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T13:24:08","slug":"testing-for-the-presence-of-road-salt-in-local-lakes","status":"publish","type":"quills-posts","link":"https:\/\/elbowlakecentre.ca\/quills\/testing-for-the-presence-of-road-salt-in-local-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing for the Presence of Road Salt in Local Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Instructions:<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Each year, 5-million tonnes of road salt is added to Canadian roads. This salt dissolves and makes its way into our lakes and rivers. Road salt is commonly made up of Sodium (Na) and Chloride (Cl). Since the chloride in road salt does not attach to soils, it can move down through the soil to the groundwater table. Howard and Haynes (1993) found that 55 percent of salt applied to roads in Toronto enters the shallow waters under the ground\u2019s surface (soil water). Cusack (n.d.) estimated that approximately 45 percent of chlorides applied as road salt will be carried down deeper to the groundwater. Chloride entering groundwater systems is likely to stay for a long time since there is no easy way for it to be removed, and groundwater moves slowly.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Graphic taken from the following study: Dugan, H & Arnott, S. (In Press). The ecosystem implications of salt as a pollutant of freshwaters.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chloride is difficult to measure without specialized equipment, however, we can use other methods to indicate the presence of road salt. For instance, we can measure water hardness or the amount of ions in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students follow the instructions in the Testing for Water Hardness.pdf <\/a><\/strong>to complete the following experiment. Students will create hard and soft water and use their experimental method to test a sample of water from a nearby body of water. Through the experiment students will learn how to determine if water is hard or soft, therefore, showing if it contains a lot of minerals (like road salt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. In three jars\/bottles with lids, students fill<\/p>\n\n\n\n