background: the aim of this study was to assess the effects of road deicing salt on the quality of the ground water resources in hamadan province during winter season. methods: water samples were taken monthly from thirty wells located around the hamadan-asadabad highway. the quality of well water was examined by measuring amount of sodium, chloride, total hardness, total dissolved solid, elect...

The Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council 2000/60/EC: Establishing a Framework for Community Action in the Field of Water Policy, states that it is necessary to consider human activities within a river basin in order to prevent and reduce the spreading of pollutants and to achieve good water status. This paper shows a simple method to estimate the environmental pressure from t...

A study of 50 sugar maples {Acer saccharum) along Gates Mills Boulevard in Gates Mills, Ohio, showed that a tree's sap-sugar concentration tended to increase with decreasing tree health and increasing soil salt concentration. Relative tree health was determined by growth ring analysis. Salt concentration in soil was determined by measuring soil extract conductivity. Extract conductivity correla...

The application of millions of tons of road deicing salts every winter in North America presents significant survival challenges to amphibians inhabiting roadside habitats. While much is known of the effects of NaCl on anuran tadpoles, less is known of effects on amphibian eggs, or any caudate life stage. In addition, little is known of the effects of MgCl2, which is now the 2nd most commonly u...

Winter deicing and traffic spreads salt to road-adjacent Norway spruce trees in the form of spraying and salt slops. Our use of Na36Cl revealed roots as the main pathway of salt uptake. One-shot application of a concentrated Na36Cl solution to spruce saplings by both irrigation and spraying causes macroscopic damage to the needles and affects the needle phyllosphere. Irrigation affects the tree...

Sodium and chloride concentrations and export increased from 1986 to 2005 in a rural stream in southeastern New York. Concentrations increased 1.5 mg/L per year (chloride) and 0.9 mg/L per year (sodium), and export increased 33,000 kg/year (chloride) and 20,000 kg/year (sodium) during this period. We estimate that salt used for deicing accounted for 91% of the sodium chloride input to the water...

Deicing agents, primarily road salt, are applied to roads in 26 states in the United States and in a number of European countries, yet the scale of impacts of road salt on aquatic organisms remains largely under-studied. The issue is germane to amphibian conservation because both adult and larval amphibians are known to be particularly sensitive to changes in their osmolar environments. In this...

Organisms around the globe are experiencing novel environments created by human activities. One such disturbance of growing concern is the salinization of freshwater habitats from the application of road deicing salts, which creates salinity levels not experienced within the recent evolutionary history of most freshwater organisms. Moreover, salinization can induce trophic cascades and alter th...

Redox stratification, especially hypolimnetic anoxia resulting from eutrophication, and salinization resulting from application of salts for road deicing is investigated in three kettle lakes in southwest Michigan. Two of the lakes (Asylum and Woods Lakes) are located in urban Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the third (Brewster Lake) is located in rural Hastings, Michigan. In summer, the water columns...