This is now our fourth winter doing road salt testing in local creeks in urban areas of both Ottawa and Gatineau. What we are finding is that 80% of the tests we have done are showing that they are beyond the threshold limits of what an aquatic ecosystem can endure. The data will tell us where the most urgently affected areas are that have the highest concentration. They sometimes have close to ocean levels of salt.
That allows us to look at the land use around those creeks and to do education on awareness. In fact, last week was our road salt reduction week. We do awareness campaigns about lessening salt use but also some training. One intervention we did last year was to bring in some key operators who would be applying road salt for private companies and have them do “Smart About Salt” training, which was developed in Ontario. That's one intervention.
We know where those high urgency creeks are only by doing the regular testing.
You were just asking about the validity of the data, and there's an opportunity there. We can test for the conductivity in a creek. That's a proxy for understanding how high the chloride levels are. If we're seeing very high levels, then we will do a test for chloride directly. We'll take that same water sample to a lab and test it for chloride, not just for conductivity. That will allow us to compare and see that we can confirm the results.
Overall, yes, it is the municipalities that apply road salt, but it is individuals and it is businesses. We really need that broader education effort to ensure we all know what the appropriate use of salt is.