As snow and ice melt on roads, the salt washes into soil, lakes and streams, polluting water supplies, damaging essential lake health and harming aquatic organisms. Mirror Lake, the gem of Lake Placid, is no exception. Chloride concentrations in the lake reached levels 160 times higher than other Adirondack lakes, disrupting the essential natural process of spring turnover, or mixing, from 2016 through 2019. These disruptions can lead to a loss of lake oxygen, trigger Harmful Algal Blooms (HABS) and cause an overall decline in lake health.

These facts triggered a four-year scientific study by the Ausable River Association and the Adirondack Watershed Institute that quantified the sources of road salt into Mirror Lake, confirmed the negative impacts on lake health and identified paths for further lake recovery.

In partnership with AWI, AsRA staff continue to monitor Mirror Lake every other week to measure the effects of efforts by the village of Lake Placid to curb the intrusion of road salt into the lake. Chloride concentrations are down slightly, and the lake has again undergone spring turn over two of the past three years. Current funding for scientific monitoring on the lake ends in 2025; AWI and AsRA scientists are pursuing options.

The recovery of the lake, however, is not in the hands of scientists. Instead, its recovery relies on the village around it — the people who care for it, manage the community around it, live near it and visit it. With this in mind, and with the release of the final report of the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force, we think it’s time to expand and broadly share practical solutions based in science and proven by cutting-edge road crews, contractors and home and business owners in our backyard.

That’s where AdkAction comes in.

AdkAction has been educating, implementing and advocating for a reduction in road salt since 2010. A dedicated staff leads interagency working groups, sponsors studies and convenings, and creates opportunities for individual and collective action toward sustainable winter road management.

While we awaited the release of the New York State Task Force Report, AdkAction staff recognized a window of opportunity at the town and county level for salt reductions. In 2022, they established the Clean Water, Safe Roads Partnership to provide municipal road crews the tools, frameworks and hands-on support they need to reduce road salt usage. That partnership now includes over 20 Adirondack highway departments, each striving toward significant reductions in both salt and sand (a major pollutant in regional streams) while keeping roads safe and controlling costs to taxpayers. We’ve seen strong indications of success and growing momentum over the past two winters, with more reductions expected in the year to come.

Residents, business owners, private contractors, and visitors are also critical to reducing salt loading in our streams and lakes. It starts with understanding the far-reaching impacts of road salt and knowing what actions they can take to prevent salt pollution. Last year, with the help of AsRA, AdkAction launched a new public outreach initiative, Don’t Be Salty, to bring the message of road salt reduction to more residents and visitors than ever before, arming them with knowledge and actions they can take to prevent road salt pollution on their own properties and in their own communities. Learn more at www.AdkAction.org/salt.

In the wake of the Task Force report this past fall, AsRA, AdkAction, AWI and other Adirondack nonprofits recommended a path to action for all the report’s recommendations. On the ground, in communities such as Lake Placid, we’re making real progress to prevent road salt pollution. But broader efforts, led by the governor’s office and our state agencies, are necessary to make a difference for all our Adirondack communities and their freshwater resources. Together, solutions are available, necessary and within our grasp.

(Sawyer Bailey is the executive director of AdkAction, and Kelley Tucker is the executive director of the Ausable River Association.)