The state has just released its long-awaited report from the Adirondack Road Salt Reduction Task Force. However, the news is not exactly cause for celebration. The report is worth maybe one cheer, depending on what happens next.
The 27-page report, which was released two years after its original deadline, provides a comprehensive overview of road salt usage in the North Country and its environmental impacts. The task force, a collaborative effort between the state’s Environmental Conservation and Transportation departments, also includes recommendations for future actions. Primarily, these recommendations revolve around the need to use less salt on Adirondack roads.
While this is great, wasn’t it already obvious? After all, the task force was established by the Randy Preston Road Salt Reduction Act, passed by lawmakers in 2020 because excessive road salt application on state roads poses a significant risk to public health and the environment in the Adirondack Park.
Three years later, have we made any progress? Are we any closer to reducing salt usage? It’s impossible to argue that we are. The pace of change has been painfully slow.
The report’s lukewarm recommendations include implementing best management practices to reduce salt usage (which is obvious), setting new salt reduction targets (also obvious), conducting more public outreach and providing drivers with better access to information (very, very obvious), launching pilot projects to test using less salt (extremely obvious), and ensuring there is funding to implement these changes (exceptionally obvious).
Did we really have to wait all this time for that? These recommendations could have been compiled in three hours instead of three years.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. The task force report acknowledges that communities in the Lake George watershed have successfully reduced salt usage by using a reduced-salt brine and a different type of plow blade to protect the lake from salt runoff. They have been implementing these strategies for several years now. It doesn’t take a genius to suspect that other organizations responsible for road salt usage aren’t particularly interested in adopting these tactics on a larger scale.
They should be. Excessive road salt harms the wells that North Country residents rely on for drinking water. It is considered the acid rain of our time, as it damages farmland, pollutes lakes, and kills trees. It destroys the unique ecosystems that make the Adirondack Park so incredible and loved. Moreover, the 50,000 pounds of salt dumped on each state highway mile annually is wasteful and unnecessary for ensuring safe roads.
Nevertheless, there have been clear signs that the state is not particularly motivated to change its established (and rather lazy) practices. First, former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo watered down the Salt Reduction Act to ensure that the report did not contain data that could be used against the state in court. Then, there was an unnecessarily long delay in assembling and operating the task force.
The Legislature should take note, as all this foot-dragging essentially amounts to the executive branch’s refusal to comply with the directives of an equal branch of government. Lawmakers should also take action, particularly in ensuring that salt reduction programs receive adequate funding for implementation.
Now that the report has finally been released, lawmakers cannot make any more excuses for inaction. It is high time for the state to reduce salt usage on Adirondack Park roadways. Please forgive us for stating the obvious.
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