The Washington Post reports that the de-icing salts used on icy roads nationwide are wreaking havoc on our freshwater sources as well as our drinking water. In a review in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, environmental scientists examined the hazards of de-icing salts. The scientists determined that the Environmental Protection Agency’s thresholds are not high enough to protect life in freshwater and that there is an urgent need to understand how freshwater organisms respond to the chemical cocktails produced from road salinization. The researchers also found that drinking water salinity levels outstrip federal thresholds.
Read more in this story from The Washington Post.
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