Last winter’s road salt shortage isn’t the sort of training regimen that Johnstown City Engineer Chris Vose would like, but he admits it was a good rehearsal for what the state is asking him to do this winter: Use less salt.

“We did all of it,” Vose said. The Fulton County city shared salt with the town of Johnstown; it focused salt on hills and intersections and went light on the straight streets; it changed the timing of salting and plowing.

But by the end of the winter, the salt barn was still empty and the city had to take $60,000 from its contingency funds to put 600 tons of salt in the barn to start this winter.

“We’re in OK shape, but we were hit pretty hard by the early storms,” he said.

Can’t not treat roads

Highway superintendents across the Greater Capital Region say they’re ready for the winter that’s here, although February remains the snowiest month in the Northeast and many people will remember that the Blizzard of ‘93 — which dropped 27 inches of snow on the Greater Capital Region and led to seven deaths — was in mid-March.

Salt supplies are adequate this winter, too, the state Department of Transportation reports, after it adjusted contracts to offer a better balance of suppliers.

Still, the state departments of Transportation and Environmental Conservation teamed up earlier this month to encourage using less salt on roads and walkways, be it the 5,300 lane-miles it treats in the region that includes Schenectady, Saratoga and Greene counties, or the walkway outside your front door.

“It only takes one teaspoon of salt to pollute five gallons of water,” DEC Commissioner Lefton said. “We’re asking all New Yorkers to take common-sense precautions before using too much rock salt on their sidewalks, driveways and other places around their homes and businesses to help prevent unknowingly harming our environment.”

DEC launched the “Don’t Be Salty, New York” public awareness campaign to encourage people to use less and reduce the damage salt can do. It calls for solid record-keeping to make sure salt is applied only where and when it’s needed, creating incentives for efficient salt application — rather than large applications, and using brine or other materials to pre-treat roads to avoid them ever getting icy in the first place.

Highway superintendents say they do something else: They train their drivers to know where the slick spots are and when to salt them, and when to lay off.

“It’s a series of things we try to do here,” said Saratoga County Highway Superintendent Chad Cooke.

His crews might use 100 pounds of salt per mile at one temperature, but 200 pounds if it’s cooler.

“It’s a guide, but not a hard-and-fast number,” Cooke said.

Still, the state says it has already reduced the amount of salt it uses to 174 pounds per lane mile from 192 pounds, but other road chiefs say the effort is a balancing act between protecting the environment — and protecting you.

“You can’t just go and not treat the roads,” Vose said.

State leads the salt pack

The state effort has no particular goal to reach, a DOT representative said in an email, because weather and road conditions are ever-changing variables. “The goal remains, as always, to use the minimum amount of salt solids to get the job done in the minimum number of trips.”

The DOT is always looking to optimize snow and ice operations, which includes evaluating new deicing methods that may be safe and environmentally responsible.

The state effort is based on the findings of a 2023 study in the Adirondacks, where 193,000 tons of salt is dropped on roads in a typical winter.

Once dissolved, about half the road salt finds its way to runoff. What doesn’t run off can leach into the ground and groundwater, the report states.

Beyond that, salt-based corrosion to machinery infrastructure can cost $5 billion a year across the nation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports.

Chloride in the water can pose a threat to human health at 20 milligrams per liter, the report states, and can be a hazard to other fish and aquatic species between 31 and 43 milligrams per liter, although some species are vulnerable with as little as 5 milligrams per liter.

However, state data show the state itself is responsible for more chloride in the water than other sources. Ponds and lakes without any runoff had about 0.3 milligrams of chloride per liter. Water bodies that get runoff from locally salted roads measured 0.9 milligrams per liter and state-salted roads measured 18.7 milligrams per liter — 20 times municipal road crews. Levels were higher in rivers and streams.

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