FLOW is participating in SALT WATCH – learn what it is and why it’s important

Road salt is everywhere during winter months. It keeps us safe on roads and sidewalks, but it can also pose a threat to fish and wildlife as well as human health.

Fish and bugs that live in freshwater streams can’t survive in extra salty water. And many of us (more than 118 million Americans) depend on local streams for drinking water. Water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out the extra salt, so it can end up in your tap water and even corrode your pipes.

FLOW began monitoring in 2022 and plans to continue. We welcome more volunteers so we can obtain a clearer picture of how road salt is impacting our watershed.

Regional Salt Watch followup – Sept 2024 – video of meeting

For more info on Salt Watch, visit the Izaak Walton Salt Watch website.

This interactive Salt Watch map shows an overview of FLOW’s sampling sites. You can zoom in on our locality to see where sampling has been done lately in the Olentangy watershed. Clicking on the menu items in the map will take you to the Clean Water Hub website for national data. The Izack Walton League test strips FLOW uses test for chloride and nitrate.

Or click HERE to see a map of all of FLOW’s sampling sites;
click on individual site listings for details. Click on Salt Watch or Nitrite Watch for readings.

Dots for each site show a color corresponding to levels found, with green being the best and red the worse.

Volunteers for FLOW are actively monitoring the tributaries of the Olentangy River for major ion concentrations.  Major ions include chloride, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium.  Human activity and the urban landscape can contribute to the concentrations of ions in the watershed.  Salting of roads in the winter can lead to increased concentrations of sodium, chloride, magnesium, and calcium.  The use of fertilizer in fields, farms, and gardens can increase the concentrations of nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, sulfate and potassium.  Sewage overflow can increase concentrations of nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate.  Leaching of ions from infrastructure such as concrete and industrial runoff and waste can contribute to the concentrations of major ions in the watershed.  By monitoring the concentrations of ions over time, we can gain a better understanding of the health of our watershed for plants, animals, and humans alike, and can be alerted more quickly to high concentrations of ions which may pose a health and safety issue in our watershed.

Nicole Karn, Professor of Teaching in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Ohio State University, has been collecting data on a wider range of ions than what’s measured by the Salt Watch program. Click on the map below for a view of the data she has been collecting.

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