Salt Pros And Cons

Each year, on average, there are 105 snowstorms. Salt is driven around in millions of trucks across the country to help deice the roads to make way for safe travels. In the United States, 20 billion pounds of salt are used every year to treat the icy roads after snowstorms. Common salt, the salt almost every American has on their dinner table, NaCl is most frequently used to deice roads across the country. Salt is very cost effective and efficient when used properly, however it is causing more harm than good when it comes to the environment (Environmental Encyclopedia).
Applying salt to roads has been done for many years. It helps prevent car accidents by melting the ice on the road. People are able to get where they need to go despite the
Some salt will dissolve into the melted snow which will end up as runoff in streams or rivers. Some salt will get absorbed into the soil, while even more salt will become concentrated into drinking water (“Living on Earth”). This kills most plants; they are not accustomed to high levels of salinity. As the plants die off the melted snow tends to travel downstream with nearby water sources. This downstream water gathers so much salt that when tested it contains up to 31 times more salt that water upstream. In local states, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts well water has become contaminated with salt. The sodium content of many wells has risen to over 20mg per liter which is the highest amount for people who have to limit their daily sodium intake. One area in Massachusetts had to put an end to the deicing of streets with salt because the drinking water supplies became contaminated with unsafe levels of salinity. These high levels on salt are harmful to humans, they are even worse for plants and animals (Environmental
The frogs did not react as expected, the salt made the frogs develop much faster than usual. The increased amount of salt made the frogs feed much more than they usually would during development. The increases feeding made the frogs grow to be much larger than usual as well. It was thought that the gray tree frogs would dehydrate with the increased salinity but they were able to survive. The frogs may have survived but this change in size could have a larger impact on the food chain (“Living on Earth”). Zooplankton, a much smaller organism than the gray tree frog; the zooplankton wasn’t not able to survive in the water with high levels of salt. If the zooplankton die out then the body of water’s algae contented would increase but not only that, the fish that feed on zooplankton would die out, creating an imbalance in the food chain. The zooplankton get stressed in the high salt environment, just like humans get dehydrated, however they are too small to handle all of the salt so they die off (“Living on Earth”). Along the Massachusetts turnpike, where tons of salt is poured onto the roadways every year, salt damaged the local plant life. In Massachusetts, the salt aided the growth of invasive species. Salt tolerant plants began grow and kill of local species of plants because they were better suited for the environment (Stromberg,