Smart About Salt - Winter Salt Management Program.

The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (the Region) covers an area of 1360 square km in south central Ontario. The Region includes the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo and the Townships of Woolwich, Wilmot, Wellesley and North Dumfries. The regional level of government is responsible for water supply for approximately 475,000 people. Since 1993, the Region has been implementing a Water Resources Protection Strategy (WRPS) to minimize the risk of historic, existing and future land uses on municipal water supplies. To mitigate the risks to water supplies, the Region has implemented a number of programs and policies to protect municipal drinking water supplies including the smart about salt winter salt management program that addresses the issue of increasing sodium and chloride concentrations. Recent research suggests, however, that reducing the levels of sodium and chloride concentrations also requires involvement of the private sector. The Region, together with Bob Hodgins of Ecoplans Environmental Consulting, developed the smart about salt winter salt management program. In January, 2008, the Region launched the smart about salt program with the issue of a media release and mailing of kit folders to large scale private salt users including institutions and major manufacturers. Orientation sessions were held in 2008 and 2009 to introduce contractors and large facilities to the program and to the principles of winter salt management best practices. This program was nominated for the TAC 2009 Educational Achievement Award. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E220308.