ROAD SALT STORAGE FACILITIES AND CONTAMINATION OF PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES

Regional road salt storage facilities have become more prevalent in Southwest Ohio. These facilities tend to be located along rail lines in order to bring the road salt in to the facility due to the large amounts required. Throughout Ohio, many of the rail lines run through buried valley aquifer systems. This means the salt storage facilities are often located near public water supplies in highly sensitive buried valley aquifers.

These buried valley aquifer systems are capable of yielding large quantities of water, and because of the natural filtration afforded by the sand and gravel, the ground water often requires little to no treatment. At least two water supplies located in southwest Ohio have either been impacted, or have the potential to become impacted, by salt contamination from regional salt storage facilities; the city of Springfield and the village of Camden.

In July 2009, Ohio EPA was notified of salt contamination of a private water well near the city of Springfield. The well is directly west of a regional salt storage facility and upgradient of the City’s water supply. Investigations showed consistently high chlorides in both soil and shallow ground water across the area. A ground water flow model showed salt contamination could eventually reach the city of Springfield’s wellfield.

The village of Camden reported a salt impact to their water system in August of 2010. Another regional salt storage facility is located approximately 3000 feet upgradient of the Village wellfield, which is located within the source water protection area of the Village’s wells. In November 2010, all three Village wells were deemed unusable because of the high road salt contamination. As a result, the village of Camden was with without a permanent source of clean drinking water for approximately 17 months and was forced to spend over 1 million dollars to secure a new location.

There are no salt storage guidelines for these facilities, only best management practices recommended by the Salt Institute. Consideration must be given to proper siting and design of salt storage facilities, particularly with respect to those located in sensitive hydrogeologic settings. Source water protection planning and long term monitoring programs are also very important in protecting these sensitive aquifers.