Experts seek ways to protect environment from rising road salt runoff

Rock salt is everywhere in the Midwest during winter, spread as a remedy for snowy and icy highways, city streets, parking lots and sidewalks.

But sodium chloride’s safety benefits can obscure what scientists say are widespread and troubling environmental costs.

After melting snow and ice, sodium chloride drains into sewers and washes into rivers. Once in the water, researchers say it chokes aquatic life and changes the composition of the region’s streams and lakes…Please click here to read Patrick M. O’Connell’s story in the Chicago Tribune.