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Salt iturn n water5/11/2023 Remedy Road Salt Issues with Help from the Experts at Greco & Haines We can also help you identify structural or locational issues that may expose your well to road salt, such as an inadequate grade around the wellhead that encourages pooling. If your property is close to a road or salt shed, a thorough examination can determine whether problems such as an insufficient or compromised well casing are allowing salty groundwater to contaminate your supply. Professional Well Inspections from Greco & HainesĮqually as essential as water testing is scheduling an annual well inspection from a professional technician. These systems can help address road salt contamination by removing sodium and chloride from your drinking water. If we find that your water supply isn’t up to par, we’ll recommend a top-quality water filtration system, such as one of our reverse osmosis or multimedia filters. We can also evaluate your water for the presence of lead, copper, and other metals that may derive from corrosion and leaching due to road salt-primed water. While bedrock geology and saltwater intrusion may be to blame for high salt levels in drinking water, repeated testing at different times of the year can often pinpoint road salt as the culprit – specifically if there’s a seasonal spike in sodium and chloride levels. While it’s essential to have your well water tested once per year, suspected road salt contamination warrants additional evaluations. If you suspect road salt contamination in your system, reach out to us for the following well water services: Water Quality Testing in CT We’ve been providing high-quality well water services in Connecticut since 1963, and our expert team has what it takes to remedy a variety of issues. Looking to diagnose potential road salt contamination or prevent the problem from occurring in the first place? If so, Greco & Haines can help. Monitoring Your Well and Drinking Water for Road Salt Contamination: Testing and Inspection Service from Greco & Haines Therefore, it’s an important issue to keep an eye out for and, if necessary, promptly address. A 2018 study published in Environmental Science & Technology, for example, estimated that the substance impacted roughly a quarter of private wells in the state of New York.įrom health risks to the increased corrosion of pipes, fixtures, and appliances, elevated sodium and chloride levels due to road salt can have a serious impact on your home and its inhabitants. Research suggests that road salt contamination can be a significant issue for well owners. Besides affecting flavor, chloride in water can be a problem for house and garden plants and can also promote the leaching of metal plumbing equipment. Therefore, high chloride levels are also a possibility in wells exposed to road-salt infiltration. Additionally, chloride is commonly mixed into road salt to boost its de-icing performance at lower temperatures. High sodium levels in drinking water can increase the risk of excess dietary salt intake, which may lead to health issues such as hypertension. That being said, wells that are located near roadways or road salt storage sheds are most vulnerable to contamination. Depending on the groundwater flow rate, it may take years for road salt to reach a reservoir or well near the point of application. The degree and rate at which salt percolates into the water table depend on several factors, including soil composition and texture, the geologic makeup of aquifers, and the local nature of groundwater movement. Of course, road salt may also enter surface water systems such as creeks, rivers, and lakes, but its impacts there are often less significant due to dilution. This can also happen when it’s incorporated into snow that’s plowed off of the road, where meltwater allows the salt to infiltrate underground water supplies. Road salt can enter into the soil and groundwater when it’s washed onto yards by runoff or sprayed into roadside ditches and banks. How Does Road Salt Affect the Water in Your House? At Greco & Haines, we can help you determine whether you may have road salt contamination in your well system and recommend a variety of effective solutions. every year.Įffective as road salt can be in making winter travel safer and easier, it does have potentially negative consequences when it seeps into waterways, soil, and groundwater – which is of particular concern to well owners. As the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators notes, more than 20 million tons of road salt are used on roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and other surfaces in the U.S. We’re not talking about a little bit, either. In the heart of winter, crews in many northern states – Connecticut included – apply road salt to de-ice pavement.
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