Impact of Road Salt on Drinking Water Quality and Infrastructure Corrosion in Private Wells

Abstract

Increased road salt use and resulting source water contamination has widespread implications for corrosion of drinking water infrastructure, including chloride acceleration of galvanic corrosion and other premature plumbing failures. In this study, we utilized citizen science sampling, bench-scale corrosion studies, and state-level spatial modeling to examine the potential extent of chloride concentrations in groundwater and the resulting impact on private wells in New York. Across the sampled community, chloride levels varied spatially, with the highest levels in private wells downgradient of a road salt storage facility followed by wells within 30 m of a major roadway. Most well users surveyed (70%) had stopped drinking their well water for aesthetic and safety reasons. In the bench-scale experiment, increasing chloride concentration in water increased galvanic corrosion and dezincification of plumbing materials, resulting in increased metal leaching and pipe wall thinning. Our simple spatial analysis suggests that 2% of private well users in New York could potentially be impacted by road salt storage facilities and 24% could potentially be impacted by road salt application. Our research underscores the need to include the damage to public and privately owned drinking water infrastructure in future discussion of road salt management.

Mineralogical Analysis of Mortars in the Walls of Ávila (Spain) and Its Surroundings

“…The salt could come from the road salt added during the winter season in Ávila due to low temperatures (around 100 cycles of freezing and thawing per year). Although there is no information available on the impact of road salt on historic buildings, the impact of this activity is demonstrated in urban soils, living water organisms, and some forms of infrastructure [51][52][53]. Therefore, this addition of salt may have a negative effect on monuments, and this should be considered in the future.…”

Freshwater salinization syndrome: from emerging global problem to managing risks

“…The increasing Cltrends discovered in this first phase of FSS research (e.g. earlier published papers by our group and also the growing literature by others investigating impacts of road salt) also raised concerns about drinking water safety and increased corrosion potential; for example, salinization can increase the chloride to sulfate mass ratio, which is a common index of corrosion potential in pipes, and can enhance leaching of Pb and other metals into drinking water (Kaushal 2016;Stets et al 2018;Pieper et al 2018). Although the widespread use of road salts is a dominant factor leading to freshwater salinization in many regions, there is also a clear link between urbanization and the potential for other sources of salt ions to contribute to FSS such as weathering of impervious surfaces, sewage, wastewater, and water softeners (Kaushal et al 2015(Kaushal et al , 2017(Kaushal et al , 2020.…”

“…Furthermore, Cu pipes are also susceptible to pitting induced by elevated concentrations of Cland SO 4 2in waters and soils (Stets et al 2018). Experiments have shown that, as concentrations of salt ions increase, there is a corresponding increase in multiple metals mobilized in drinking water (Pieper et al 2018).…”

“…Corrosion from road salts poses particular risk to private wells and drinking water infrastructure (Pieper et al 2018). Corrosion from pipes in self-supplied groundwater in the USA contaminates drinking water with Pb, calcite, and apatite, where about 15% of wells tested were at risk of Pb dissolution, and highest Pb concentrations were found in California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (Jurgens et al 2019).…”

Chloride and corrosiveness

“…Persistent salt ions in solution at higher concentrations are only part of the problem. More recently, research has indicated secondary effects and resulting "chemical cocktails" require further investigation (Kaushal, Gold, et al, 2018;Pieper et al, 2018). For example, as corrosiveness increases, calcite is more likely to dissolve in a solution.…”