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Freshwater is Getting Saltier, Threatening People and Wildlife (scientificamerican.com)
Salts that de-ice roads, parking lots and sidewalks keep people safe in winter. But new research shows they are contributing to a sharp and widely rising problem across the U.S. From a report: At least a third of the rivers and streams in the country have gotten saltier in the past 25 years. And by 2100, more than half of them may contain at least 50 percent more salt than they used to. Increasing salinity will not just affect freshwater plants and animals but human lives as well -- notably, by affecting drinking water. Sujay Kaushal, a biogeochemist at the University of Maryland, College Park, recounts an experience he had when visiting relatives in New Jersey. When getting a drink from the tap, "I saw a white film on the glass." After trying to scrub it off, he found, "it turned out to be a thin layer of salt crusting the glass."
When Kaushal, who studies how salt invades freshwater sources, sampled the local water supply he found not just an elevated level of the sodium chloride, widely used in winter to de-ice outdoor surfaces, but plenty of other salts such as sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride. He also found similar concentrations of these chemicals in most rivers along the east coast, including the Potomac, which provides drinking water for Washington, D.C. Where did all of it come from? De-icing salts, Kaushal determined, are part of the problem, slowly corroding our infrastructure.
When Kaushal, who studies how salt invades freshwater sources, sampled the local water supply he found not just an elevated level of the sodium chloride, widely used in winter to de-ice outdoor surfaces, but plenty of other salts such as sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride. He also found similar concentrations of these chemicals in most rivers along the east coast, including the Potomac, which provides drinking water for Washington, D.C. Where did all of it come from? De-icing salts, Kaushal determined, are part of the problem, slowly corroding our infrastructure.
to [current date].
so I'm good.
People still use sodium chloride as a deicer? Around here, pretty much all municipalities have switched to calcium chloride, which deices better than sodium chloride, and tends to not kill everone's grass. They'll only use sodium chloride in dire emergencies - IE massive ice storm at the end of the season and there's no calcium chloride to be had, which is pretty rare.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
“The demise of water fleas does not just affect the clarity of the water, but will likely also impact the small fish that feed on them,” Hintz adds. “They provide food for the larger fish that humans eat.”
Conservatives and Republicans, this is why the environment and our ecosystem is important. It's not some "liberal snowflake" luxury. It's about our health and well being.
And why didn't the summary mention that it's also caused by industrial activities? Business needs to take responsibility for their pollution. Because they just dump or whatever and stick us with the costs.
I remember the same discussion back in the 70s. It also hurts pets and damages roads and cars. In Germany many cities have banned the use of thawing salt on roads and sidewalks; some places still allow it but only in extreme weather. Grit is a perfectly viable alternative and the effect lasts much longer.
Something something liberal tears.
But seriously, Trump is deregulation incarnate... Nothing will be implemented to prevent this.
I mean, they should be able to drive on icy roads, right?
"by 2100, more than half of them may contain at least 50 percent more salt than they used to" - a total meaningless statistic. Are are going from 1 ppb to 2 ppb, which is essentially a non-event, or from 1% to 2%, which would have serious implications? Doubling without giving a baseline and what that baseline represents is just scaremongering.
Only the life that can adapt to this change will live...we need a name for this process! Oh and blame the humans because they are really smart and are in no way a part of life.
This is all hyperbole and other than a few random water tests is very weak on facts. Salinity increases are usually caused by droughts.
Who drinks tapwater? Our ruling class doesn't let it touch them unless it's in the shower. Drinking tapwater is a sure class marker of the deplorables, right alongside watching sportsball or murdering animals with assault rifles. Don't believe me? Invite one of their kids over and give zir a glass of tapwater to drink, and see if the parents let zir come over again. Take it from them: don't drink it, don't cook with it, don't even brush your teeth with it. If you can't afford the pittance it costs for pure water, go ahead and pollute your kids' bodies. Just don't contaminate theirs.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
...much faster than "climate change". The fact that people are ignoring local pollution to focus on climate change is outrageous. You can't sell carbon credits to "fix" local pollution though.
As a halophile american I'm insulted that people think my way of life is imperiling. Hey if you hate salt in the water supply then you should stop peeing mr high and mighty Halo-phobe. Can't we just leave salt people alone! this all started with the bible, and the denigration of people turned into pillars of salt. I think it must all be a mis translation of the word Salt. Who ever heard of a pillar of salt?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
FTFA :-
He sounds like a model house guest.
Using salt for de-icing has been illegal for a long time. I thought that was the case everywhere.
Not only because dogs suffered from it. Obviously the plants around it did too.
We just use gravel. Although its sharp nature isn't exactly nice for dogs either.
the poor. You can buy a reverse osmosis filtration system for about $200-$500 bucks per faucet and that should filter out most of the salt.
Also, when it comes to water rural communities have much, much bigger problems. Their pipes are going on 100 years old and nobody wants to pay to replace them. Estimates put it at $750 billion to fix the whole country. I'm surprised nobody on the left is talking about that. All they talk about is roads and bridges. Get that message across and you could snatch the farmlands back from the right wing.
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People still use sodium chloride as a deicer? Around here, pretty much all municipalities have switched to calcium chloride, which deices better than sodium chloride, and tends to not kill everone's grass.
In general it's the chloride that's the problem, not the sodium ion, so CaCl2 is not much better than NaCl for the environment. It does de-ice at a lower temperature, though. https://stormwater.pca.state.m... https://www.oxycalciumchloride...
Seems like municipal water systems should be performing RO before sending water out to begin with.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
It's part of the human experience
Given the nature of how water treatment works everyone should be using a reverse osmosis (RO) system for their *drinking* water. .
Whilst I agree, this doesn't help the environment. Birds, ducks, fish etc. don't have the luxury of finding a nice, portable RO system to carry around.
what nature of water treatment are you talking about
municipal-scale membrane ultrafiltration is becoming more and more common as installation costs go down and knowledge of their operation becomes more widespread
reverse osmosis is useful for desalination and reusing wastewater for drinking water. for general domestic drinking water without an especially contaminated source, RO is ridiculous overkill and is incredibly wasteful in terms of power consumption and the wastewater it generates for negligible improvements in water quality compared to micro- or ultrafiltration
pharmaceuticals are only present in surface waters drawn downstream of wastewater plants. the concentrations you'd find in drinking water under those conditions are so subtheraputically trace as to render concern about them laughable
The thing is, in the U.S., we're used to being able to drink the water straight from the tap. Seems only civilized, kinda like having an indoor toilet. It would be a real shame and a giant step backwards to give that up.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
https://xkcd.com/1252/
To a degree; OP's point is that you have multiple grades of needs, and the central supply shouldn't really treat all water to the highest requirement. There is also the lead pipe issue in places and a host of other things that really make it a good idea.
Only downside is you waste a lot of water with RO; nice if you can pipe the concentrate stream for something like laundry or at least toilet flushing.
What we need is more global warming!
I'm already distilling my drinking water to remove fluoride and xenoestrogens. Been doing this for my son's entire life - he's 3 and perfectly healthy in every respect. The kid never stops playing.
RO does not remove chloramine. Many municipalities use it to disinfect the water.
Remember you were told not to mix ammonia and chlorine? Yeah, just like that.
Nothing removes chloramine.
I read the article. Nowhere did it mention actual levels. Twice 1ppb is 2ppb. Neither is very dramatic. I would have liked to have seen seawater is x% salt and fresh was y% and is now z%. Maybe it is a real problem, but would it have killed them to quantify it? I'd like to see more numbers before I decide the sky is falling. Lastly, the crux is that we are swamping the environment with too many of us, and unlike lemmings we do not purge when we exceed resources.
They use a ridiculous amount of salt just to soften water - and dump salt directly into the water reservoir.
The tech should be restricted or banned since there are other solutions out there.
I'd think that seawater infiltrating freshwater sources, as ocean levels rise, would be a bigger long-term threat than de-icing roads.
activated carbon removes chloramines. most ro units have carbon filters
The quote says:
> And by 2100, more than half of them may contain at least 50 percent more salt than they used to.
So if it was 100000 times less than the maximum allowable, in 2100, it will be 60000 times less than permissible. Is that a problem?
I don't know the numbers, but the quoted sentence doesn't change that....
*you* (the general public) are told not to mix chlorine and ammonia cleaning products because the products of their reaction can be hazardous to you when uncontrolled and in high concentrations
chloramination in water treatment occurs under finely controlled conditions in an extremely dilute fashion that effectively disinfects water while minimizing disinfection by-products generated via chlorination
Here in Germany, the standards for tap water are still higher than for bottled water. Which is why Coke, Pepsi & Nestle didn't have much chances to rip us off here. So they tried to "privatize" our city water plants. Which is the neocon-fascist word for stealing things from the public to get a monopoly, in order to gouge money from the public. The backlash didn't go well for them.
I'm telling you this, because in the USA, this already happened!
Lewis Black has a nice bit on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9NgP5WP7bE
Using salt for de-icing has been illegal for a long time. I thought that was the case everywhere.
Not only because dogs suffered from it. Obviously the plants around it did too.
We just use gravel. Although its sharp nature isn't exactly nice for dogs either.
We don't feed it to our dogs. We also don't feed gravel to them either. Maybe you need a smarter breed of dog?
Only possible sollution! Ask any leftist
You must be a foreigner. The typical white rural American understands the Left loathes and despises his/her entire existence and way of life.
Talking about fixing a few pipes is not going to suddenly make them all vote for people who hate them and want to destroy all they hold dear.
If not a foreigner you must be a far left city dweller who calls in fly over country and thinks they are all stupid, u educated, deplorable sub-humans.
You will never understand why Trump got re-elected.
in the USA tapwater is similarly highly regulated, while bottled water has very little regulation
water privatization has been and continues to be a stain on the quality and reliability of our water supplies where it is legal. it's common for these private water companies to treat fines as "the cost of doing business"; they tend to quickly cycle through certified plant operators as folks quit to avoid civil penalties and license forfeiture due to problems the company refuses to fix
Cars (and bikes) that could last for thirty+ years are destroyed in fifteen. Heavy industry spew out tons of CO2, other pollutants and heavy metals. Get snow tires and drive slower!
Is being able to drive the same speed all year around really worth destroying the world?
Seriously, you assholes don't give a single fuck about the environment, global or local. Therefore, you deserve to every hardship it creates.
Forest fires, earth quakes from fraking, CAT 5 hurricanes from global warming and now, no drinking water.
You deserve this fate. But hey, maybe you can drive your hummers to Mexico and get some of their water.
I've been to the US many times and I've never had tap water over there that was remotely close to drinkable.
In the US some companies got caught bottling tap water and selling it as "spring water".
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Obvious troll is obvious. Fuck off!
When a person wants to "drive" make them ask their gov for permission.
Are they a criminal? An illegal migrant?
Once people who are approved to 'drive" are found then start with much better education.
Lots of tests and advanced driving simulators.
Finally normal driving.
Then bring in advance ice driving as part of testing.
How a car drives in winter conditions.
Pass the new tests and a nations driving population will be able to better use winter and summer roads.
Ensure transport used has the approved and correct equipment for winter. Enforce car and equipment laws every winter.
Clear the roads sooner and have a better quality of educated and tested driver.
Find better drivers, have the correct equipment. Study what is needed on a road so good drivers with good winter equipment can drive.
That could see a reduction in the total national de-ice effort. Better drivers, less total amounts of de-ice spending. In terns of amount of chemicals used, the types of chemicals and number of roads that need all winter de-ice work.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You must be an inbred nazi faggot of no consequence. You WILL understand why exactly Trump and his bitch traitor sons die in FEDERAL PRISON, because Mueller will spend many nights explaining it to your punk ass.
The system works, faggot.
Pretty ignorant statement. RO water is actually pretty corrosive to distribution systems (flint, MI anyone?). Better to put it just where it's needed - for drinking water.
Scott
Yeah, there name is nestle and they still are doing it. It plainly says right on the label, but no one knows how to read anything thats not on a screen anymore.
Instead of salt, try some lateral thinking. Build your properties above major roads and turn building lots into parks. Safe travel in all weathers and you are directly above transport corridors for easy social and business access, you also recover than land value under roads.
Good idea, but note that you will now need to illuminate your roads. That takes energy.