Sudbury city council asks Ontario government for help cracking down on winter salt use

Sudbury city council has voted unanimously to ask the province to take steps to help reduce the amount of salt spread on private properties every winter.

Coun. Deb McIntosh, who introduced the motion, said many businesses in the city use more salt than they need on their parking lots, driveways and walking paths.

"They're concerned, rightly so, of slips and falls and because they get sued and their insurance rates go up," she said.

"So they overcompensate."

In her motion, McIntosh proposed the province develop limited liability legislation so businesses are protected from lawsuits as long as they meet a minimum standard for salt usage.

She also suggested that the province introduce enforceable contractor training for managing snow and ice removal, along with standards for best practices to cut back on salt.

"There's no regulation on how much salt you can or cannot use on a private property," she said.

McIntosh said that's a problem because winter salt dissolves over time and ends up in local waterways where it can be harmful to the environment and make its way into drinking water.

Ontario has an aesthetic objective for chloride in drinking water of 250 milligrams per litre. That means that chloride, or salt, concentrations in drinking water should not exceed 250 milligrams per litre to ensure "good taste and prevent corrosion in the distribution system."

Testing under the city's Lake Water Quality Program done in the spring of 2024 found that chloride levels in Ramsey Lake, the main source of Sudbury's drinking water, was under that threshold at 82.4 milligrams per litre.

Of the lakes the city tested, Lake Nepahwin had the highest levels at 166 milligrams per litre.

McIntosh said the city has taken its own precautions to cut back winter salt by only applying it to busier arterial roads, such as the Kingsway.

For residential streets, city contractors use sand with a small amount of salt added to prevent it from clumping. 

Richard Witham, chair of the Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance, said he supports McIntosh's motion.

"I think it's a really positive step and it's something that the Ontario government needs to implement and it needs to be done at a provincial level because they're the only ones who can basically make this move forward," he said.

Witham said high chlorine levels in local lakes from winter salt is harmful to aquatic life, and especially zooplankton called daphnia that eat algae. That could increase the risk of blue-green algae blooms, which produce toxins that are harmful to people and animals.

Witham said it would be a "win-win" for the province to address winter salt use and introduce limited liability for businesses and contractors.

"It's a win for the environmental organizations and it's a win for Landscape Ontario, which represents the contractors who remove ice and snow because they are also pushing for this," he said.

CBC News contacted Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks about winter salt use in the province and steps taken to protect freshwater, but did not receive a response by deadline.