"Rising Salt Levels Threaten Twin Cities Lakes by 2050"

"Twin Cities is a hot spot in a national study of lakes and road-salt runoff. It showed that salt concentrations in the Mississippi, mostly from road salt, have increased 81 percent since 1985."

"Many lakes around the Twin Cities are becoming so salty from winter road maintenance that, within three decades, they will no longer support native fish and plants.

The lakes were included in the first study of freshwater chloride contamination across the northern region of the country, an area that has one of the highest density of lakes on earth. The researchers found that lakes showed steadily rising concentrations of chloride even with just one percent impervious land cover around their perimeters.

The Twin Cities turned out to be among the saltiest."

Josephine Marcotty reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune April 11, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Salt From Icy Roads Is Contaminating North America’s Lakes" (Washington Post)