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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

Pollution of Groundwater and Surface Water by Roads with Emphasis on the Use of Deicing Salt

Abstract:

This document contains a literature review of the effects of groundwater and surface water of maintenance and operation of roads. Although the pollutants from roads consist of many different inorganic and organic components, this study is focused on deicing salt. The impact on groundwater and surface water in Swedent due to deicing salt is investigated. Increased chloride concentrations have been observed in both municipal water supplies and in private wells close to roads. Futhermore, the chloride concentratin has been observed to increase in lakes in Sweden with concentration peaks during spring. In this study, the airborne spreading of deicing salt is quantified and a simplified mass balance method is used to predict the steady state chloride concentration for an aquifer.

Source(s):

Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Sweden). For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2000

Author:

Thunqvist

Keywords:


Environment

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