A plan to use 10% less road salt as part of a multi-year pilot project notwithstanding, the New York State Department of Transportation may still be spreading roughly 290 tons of the stuff every winter on the highway along Lake George’s west shore.
“The DOT was actually using less salt during the pilot project on its trips out, which was good, but in 2019, its drivers started making two to three times more frequent trips, so ultimately, there was no reduction at all in the use of salt,” Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky told a New York State Assembly roundtable, convened on August 21 in Albany to discuss the impacts to the environment and to people’s health from the over-use of road salt.
Not only did the DOT deposit the same amount of salt across the designated pilot project site that it had in years past, it may also have failed to reduce the use of salt on state highways throughout the Lake George basin.
Over a 40-month period, Navitsky, Lake George Association Scientific Advisor Dr. Jim Sutherland and LGA staff studied the DOT’s pilot project for the 17-mile stretch of Route 9N from Lake George Village to the base of Tongue Mountain, a project announced with great fanfare by New York State in 2018.
“Lake George is known worldwide for its pristine beauty, and this new pilot program will strive to keep our roadways safe while enhancing environmental sustainability. We are committed to working with stakeholders to reduce salt and retain the Adirondack Park’s beauty for generations to come,” Acting Transportation Commissioner Paul A. Karas stated in May, 2018.
During the pilot project, the DOT would “leverage (its) best management practices to reduce salt application rates while still satisfying the goals of maintaining safety on the state’s highway system,” the department stated in 2018.
Among other things, the DOT stated that it would: apply to the highway the salty, liquid solution known as brine, which acts as an anti-icing agent in advance of a storm; use live edge plows that conform to a road’s erratic surfaces, mechanically removing as much snow and ice as possible from the highway; and track salt application rates, calibrate the salt spreading equipment, monitor salt use during storms and perform post-storm evaluations.
Jim Sutherland told the Lake George Mirror that there is no evidence to indicate that DOT applied brine more than a few times over the course of the pilot project.
But, he said, “it’s hard to know precisely what the DOT did or did not do because the agency did not disclose information. If the DOT conducted post-storm evaluations, for instance, they were never made public.”
The DOT also promised to help lead a strategic working group, one that would include municipalities and organizations such as the Lake George Waterkeeper to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pilot Project.
“Communication fell apart,” Sutherland told the Mirror. “At first the DOT appeared interested in working with us to monitor the pilot project, but that fell apart. We had perhaps one meeting with DOT.
“If DOT data had been shared on a timely basis, consistently and transparently, it would have allowed us and our partners to have more productive conversations,” Navitsky told the roundtable, which included the chairs of the Assembly Transportation, Health and Environmental Conservation Committees, as well as representatives of DOT, DOH, DEC and several environmental protection groups.
According to Navitsky, the researchers were forced to file several Freedom of Information requests in order to acquire the necessary data to calculate the trucks’ rates of salt application over the course of the study.
When finally provided, the data was difficult to interpret and inconsistent, Navitsky told the group.
The researchers concluded that while the DOT’s average application rates may have decreased, the number of times the DOT applied road salt per storm event increased, corresponding to increases in salt levels in surface waters and to no decrease in salt contamination.
After the Waterkeeper’s report was released in 2023, the DOT agreed to meet with him and Sutherland only after town supervisors insisted that it must, Navitsky said.
“We have observed changes in the DOT’s behavior, but we have not been able to verify that there have been reductions in salt loading because of the lack of data,” said Navitsky.
Sawyer Bailey of ADKAction and Kevin Chlad of Adirondack Council, who also participated in the roundtable discussion, likewise called for greater accountability and communication from DOT, said Tim Behuniak, the LGA’s director of communications.
According to the Lake George Association, 40% of the 3,000 acres of roadway in the Lake George watershed are maintained by New York State. As the study co-authored by Navitsky and Sutherland states, “While the exact total amount is not known, the export of chloride into Lake George on an annual basis must be staggering.”
The DOT’s policies dilute the efficacy of the strategies crafted to protect Lake George from chloride pollution, the authors acknowledge.
If New York State adopted the strategies now followed by Warren County and most of its municipalities, the lake’s ecosystem might start to repair itself, said Navitsky.
“While state, local and private entities all have a role to play in smarter salt use, the LGA has the research and the data to show that the DOT is the largest contributor to salt loading. The agency should lead on transparency, collaboration and implementation,” said Tim Behuniak.
According to Behuniak, the LGA has urged the DOT to implement the recommendations of the 2023 Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force. The organization has also joined groups like the Adirondack Council to urge both houses of the New York State legislature to pass bills to create a New York State Road Salt Reduction Council and a New York State Road Salt Reduction Advisory Committee.
In all likelihood, the legislatively mandated bodies would do little more than recommend that New York State adopt the strategies to curb chloride pollution that were pioneered on Lake George.
Nevertheless, passing the proposed bills in both the Senate and Assembly “is a crucial next step to ensure that the entire New York State drinking water supply and freshwater ecosystems – including Lake George and the Adirondack Park – are kept clean and clear for years to come,” said Dr. Brendan Wiltse, the LGA’s executive director. “Lake George municipalities have reduced their use of salt – the Town of Hague, for instance, by as much as 50% – but New York State’s Department of Transportation lags behind. The only way to force the DOT to change its practices on Lake George is to require a change in policies statewide,” said Wiltse.
