What You Can Do

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Start at Home

1

Salt is really powerful when it comes to preventing ice from forming – all you need for a 20-foot driveway is ONE mugful (12 oz) of road salt.

2

You do not have to feel "the crunch" for salt to do its job. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water so snow and ice can be more easily removed. Putting more salt on a surface does not make snow and ice melt faster or eliminate the need for plowing or shoveling.

3

Watch out for deicers labeled as "eco-friendly" or "pet-friendly"! Read the package more closely: If there is chloride in the product (sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium chloride, etc.), it is still a salt!

Get the Word Out

Write a Letter to the Editor

Start with our template and adapt it for educating YOUR community about the need to reduce salt use!

Hand Out Flyers

  • Flyer to educate neighbors
  • Flyer to inform local businesses
  • Flyer for visual of how much salt to use
  • Brochures (in English and in Spanish) to educate your community about road salt pollution and what to do
  • Yard sign template to inform your community about road salt pollution

Salt Watch Fact Sheets

Use these fact sheets to educate your community about road salt pollution.

Salt Watch Outreach Guide

Use this guide to start a Salt Watch advocacy campaign in your community!

Curb Salt Use In Your Community

Call Local Government

Call your city or county Department of Environmental Protection to report high chloride levels or large salt piles (either piles spilled on the road or uncovered stockpiles). Call your Department of Transportation to ask them to apply less salt on the roads.

Share Best Practices

Property managers, community leaders, and state agencies might not know where to start in curbing salt use in your area. Share the Road Salt Best Practices compiled from our partners already working to reduce salt use in their regions.

Write a Letter to Your State Legislator or City Council

Write to your representatives at the state and local level in support of salt reduction and smarter salt use in your community. You can start with our sample letters – but feel free to personalize them to your own perspective!

Study Up On Salt

Subscribe to Our Clean Water Newsletter


We'll send you updates every other month on ways you can take action for better water quality in your community.

Donate to the Clean Water Program

Your generous gift will fund Salt Watch kits for new volunteers all over the country and help us work towards road salt reduction strategies nationwide.


Donate Now

Learning Resources

  • Road Salt and Stream Health – A brief history of road salt, some stats on how much we use, how salt melts ice, and why salt hurts stream life.

  • Road Salt: Way Too Much of a Good Thing – A longer read about road salt fact and fiction, and what some regions are doing to address the problem.

  • Alternatives to Road Salts for Safe Winter Driving – One of our most popular blog posts ever! Next time someone asks you, "But what can we use instead of salt?", you'll be equipped with the answer.

  • Salt in the Water: Action on the Ground – In this webinar, Dr. John Jackson of the Stroud Water Research Center and Kevin Roth of Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust explain how excessive salt affects stream life and how one local community group is raising awareness and changing behavior.

Salt Watch is a trademark of the Izaak Walton League of America.