Washing Away Hazards
Mitigating Complex Issues Related to Salt Contamination of Potable Well Water
Salt contamination of potable well water is a growing problem in the Northeast and Midwest sections of the United States, as the mineral continues to become more prevalent in day-to-day life. When groundwater used as potable water includes elevated levels of sodium and chloride, effects can range from an unpleasant taste to an increased risk for heart disease patients to plumbing issues caused by corrosive water.
Common anthropogenic sources of sodium and chloride include salt or brine solutions used to de-ice roads, ion-exchange water softeners, septic systems, municipal waste effluent, agricultural fertilizers, and dust control products in quarries. The variety and distribution of the salt sources can create confusion amongst regulators and homeowners as they work to identify and address the cause(s) of salt contamination in potable wells.
Langan is currently performing environmental assessments for multiple rural municipalities in the Northeast dealing with issues related to salt contamination. In these cases, town managers are being blamed for oversalting roadways and impacting domestic potable wells, and face pressure from homeowners and regulators to fix the problem. Projects like this pose challenges due to the number of stakeholders involved, regulator timeframes, unique construction of homes and wells, different types and volumes of analytical data sets available, varying homeowner cooperativity, and salt input from multiple sources.
When salt contamination occurs, municipalities are often left alone to solve the complex problem while facing a growing amount of public criticism and regulatory enforcement action. Langan is helping rectify these issues by performing detailed data evaluations of the areas and determining that many sites have multiple sources of salt, primarily road salting and ion-exchange water softening systems. With varying sources of salt contamination, source contribution must be viewed through a site-specific lens, requiring a unique solution custom-tailored to each home. Solutions may include changes to the construction of wells, a reduction of domestic and municipal salt applications, and increased education on sustainable salt usage for homeowners and municipalities.
Successfully reducing salt contamination requires cooperation between community members, regulators, municipalities, and other stakeholders—as well as an environmental consultant to enhance these partnerships and guide informed decision-making with science and engineering.
Zach Villari is a staff geologist at Langan. He specializes in hydrology and hydrogeology, with a focus on groundwater and contaminant plume modeling, as well as geologic site conceptual modeling.
Karl Ziegler has a BS in Earth Science from George Mason University with a concentration in Geology. He is a staff geologist in Langan’s Doylestown Office.