According to to Wisconsin Saltwise, an organization designed to educate Dane County residents and maintenance professionals about road salt safety, it takes one teaspoon of salt to permanently pollute five gallons of water to a level that is toxic for freshwater ecosystems. 

An average of 500 tons of salt a year is put into Lake Mendota during an average winter. Not intentionally of course, but the salt can wash into the lakes when met with rain.

Not only does salt degrade lake ecosystems, but it also diminishes the quality of drinking water.

Read about Madison’s action taken to limit is salt usage.

When you look at lovely water gardens in backyards and at businesses — and feel soothed by the serenity they convey — you would not guess that they represent troubled waters for ecosystems in the mid-Atlantic region.

The explosion in popularity of water gardening has resulted in the proliferation of aquatic invasive species, according to Diane Oleson, a Penn State Extension educator based in York County, who created an educational program that shows water gardeners how to avoid giving aquatic invaders a free ride.

Invasive plants tend to displace native plants over time and create an unhealthy ecosystem because a lot of them form huge, dense, one-species stands in which other plants can’t grow. “Animals don’t eat them because the species that would control them are back in Asia or Europe or wherever they came from,” Oleson explained.

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