Why salt overuse is a persistent probem

Madison, WI, has been trying to reduce the use of de-icing salt since the 1970s.  Despite many sincere efforts, application of salt by the City, plus private contractors, has continued to climb...along with the levels of salt in our lakes.

Why is it so hard to control the salt problem?  Let's try to think outside the box, looking for solutions where they may be hiding.

Problems that defy solution

There are some long-term societal problems I call "Intractible Problems," because they have defied solution for centuries.  Now, I hope readers will forgive me for speculating above my pay grade.  I'm just trying to put the salt problem in perspective.

Drug abuse: There is increasing evidence that biology is lurking behind addiction.  Alkaloid substances like nicotine and caffein are known to be attractive to animals like bees.

But then society steps in and makes the problem a lot worse.  The management guru and author, Peter Drucker, once observed that problems like drug abuse are difficult to solve in proportion to the number of societal groups that benefit from the problem:

1. Politicians get votes by taking dramatic positions against drug addicts, peddlers, or smugglers.  This circus recently reached new heights as boats transporting drugs are being blown out of the water by the US military, using aircraft carriers and guided missiles.
2. Journalists and authors boost their careers by writing sensational articles and books.  Lobbyists play a similar role in promoting positions.
3. Law enforcement officials owe their jobs to combating drugs and stoking fear.  They often get to keep expensive assets like vehicles seized in the course of enforcement. This creates more incentives to keep promoting concern about drugs.
4. Fearful or credulous citizens continue to consume the articles, vote for the politicians, and support law enforcement, despite much evidence that current policies aren't working. Citizens may not be benefiting, but they seem to enjoy reading and hearing about the fuss and may "feel" they have benefited by voting for politicians who stoke fear.
5. Drug companies: Purdue Pharma, developed and sold OxyContin beginning in the mid‑1990s, promoting them irresponsibly, leading to widespread addiction.
6. Doctors and pharmacies profited as they continued to make prescriptions available despite obvious signs the drugs were being misused.
7. Farmers in the US benefit from growing cannabis, while Afghans grow poppies to produce heroin and Columbians grow cocaine.  Chemical companies benefit from producing precursors for fentanyl.
8. Drug pushers, smugglers, and trans-national crime gangs.  In many cases, the criminals are protected by politicians or law enforcement.

Following Drucker's lead, we see at least eight groups are in benefiting from the current ineffective approach to drugs.  I'm not saying people in all these groups want the drug problem to continue (except for those who directly profit).  What I am saying is that many groups benefit from all the noise and churn involved, while their actions support those unproductive approaches.  No wonder drugs are such an intractable problem.

Guns 

This issue is similar to drugs in that many of the same groups are involved.  Substitute manufacturers of guns for the groups that produce and push drugs.  One difference from drugs is that guns are more political.  This leads to the rise of advocacy groups like the NRA which have been extremely effective in both promoting guns and backing politicians who protect guns.

One extremely sinister aspect of the guns is that, the more fear grows from gun violence, the more people want to buy guns to protect themselves.  It's a self-reinforcing spiral leading back to the Middle Ages.

The problem of violent crime has much in common with both drugs and guns.

What's evident when considering these most intractable problems is that fear is a driving force.

Why salt overuse is a persistent problem

I call salt a "persistent problem" because it's not "intractable" to the same degree.  It's not as ancient as drugs or guns, dating mostly from the time when we started walking and driving on pavement that sometimes became icy.

Before salt, people sprinkled sand or "cinders" from burning coal on the ice.  Then we switched to salt when the sand began to clog waterway and cloud the water.  Nevertheless, overuse of salt has become a worldwide problem in northern climates--with reports of corroded bridges collapsing in Italy.

Groups who benefit from salt use...

• There aren't nearly as many groups benefiting from salt.  But there are some:
• Miners and transporters of salt or other deicers
• Manufacturers of equipment used in spreading salt
• Lobbyists: 
• Retailers of salt
• Trial lawyers who sue in slip/fall cases
• Contractors who spread salt on private properties
• Lobbyists
• Merchants or landlords-- want to protect their customers or project a "caring" image

Note that several key actors from drugs and guns aren't big players in the salt problem.  Politicians and law enforcement are well-behaved here.

But fear of slipping on ice, and of vehicle accidents, is a real factor.  Region-wide snowstorms, or multi-car collisions on highways covered by patches of black ice get a lot of attention in the news.  

Three disasters caused by overuse of road salt

Testimony on Salt Safety in favor of WI Senate Bill 1019 

By David H. Thompson, Ph.D.  2/17/26 

  

We think of road salt as making us safer.  But its overuse has helped cause major disasters with many lives lost.  Because salt is often only one of several causes of a disaster, salt’s deadly role goes unnoticed.  I’m going to describe how salt helped cause three disasters. 

In 2014, when Flint, MI, switched the source of its water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, salt in the city's water soared eightfold.  Salt in the Flint River came largely from de-icing salt.

 

Poisoning in Flint, MI

Despite the increase in salt from the switch, to save money the city did not add a corrosion inhibitor to the water, as required by law. As a result, both iron and lead pipes in Flint corroded, causing leaks and millions of dollars in damage.  Most significantly, the corrosion exposed an estimated 99,000 residents in Flint to lead., including over 25,000 children. 

 

At the home of Lee-Ann Walters and her 3-year-old son, average lead levels were measured at levels sometimes exceeding the EPA criterion for "toxic waste."  

  

Lead poisoning was only the first blow from salt.  When iron pipes corrode, it causes a chemical reaction that destroys chlorine added to the water to kill bacteria. Without enough disinfectant in the water, Legionella bacteria multiplied in the pipes of McLaren Hospital, lining them with bacterial slime.  More than 90 people caught Legionnaire’s disease... Twelve of those people died.  

 

In Flint, excess salt was one link in a chain of cause and effect that led to 2 separate disasters.  Everyone has heard about the lead pipes.  Almost no one heard about salt's central role in the poisoning and the disease outbreak. It took a long time before the connection between Legionnaires disease and salt was demonstrated, so most people never realized salt played a role in the 12 deaths. 

 

Collapse in Minneapolis

In Minneapolis, salt contributed to the deaths of 12 people and injured 100 when the I35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed in 2007.  

The primary cause of the collapse was a design error that reduced the strength of the bridge.  Corrosion by salt then further reduced the structure’s strength. Rust added to the load by trapping debris and

moisture.  And rust covered bridge components so the design flaw wasn't noticed.  The final NTSB report noted four other contributing causes.

The lesson here is that millions of structures we depend on, from vehicles to bridges, are being weakened--and their safety margins reduced—because of road salt. 

 

Mall Collapse in Canada

Another salt disaster happened in the Canadian city of Elliot Lake in 2012.  The parking deck on the roof of a shopping mall collapsed, killing 2 and injuring 20.  The building had experienced decades of water and salt infiltration. A key steel beam supporting the parking roof had corroded to only 10% of its original thickness.  

 

An inquiry found systemic negligence, ignored engineering warnings, and long‑term deterioration. 

What seared Canadians was the muffled cries of trapped and dying victims, who could not be rescued for 39 hours. 

Rather than remembering the role of salt, most Canadians remember the negligence. 

 

The lesson from this event is how often salt damage is minimized and ignored.  

Overall, these events show that the damage resulting from salt overuse can be lethal because the damage is... 

• Complex, 
• Unpredictable,  
• Nearly invisible, and 
• Acting over a time scale of decades. 

 

These qualities make salt overuse easy to ignore. 

 

....................................... 

Sources 

 

How Michigan’s Flint River came to poison a city.  The Guardian, Jan. 18, 2016. 

 

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). “Collapse of I‑35W Highway Bridge, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 1, 2007.” NTSB Highway Accident Report NTSB/HAR‑08/03. Adopted: November 14, 2008. 

 

Kimberly J. Browns. 2018. The I‑35W Bridge Collapse: A Survivor’s Account of America’s Crumbling Infrastructure. Potomac Books / University of Nebraska Press.

 

CBC News, Oct. 15, 2014. Elliot Lake fatal mall collapse comes down to 'human failure,' report says.