Abstract
Urban freshwater streams across northern latitudes are undergoing increasing salinization due, in part, to road salt inputs during winter months. Road salt contamination has been monitored across Canada for over 40 years; however, the scale of contamination in the Pacific Northwest, which experiences relatively mild and rainy winters, is not well understood. A network of almost 40 water quality loggers in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, B.C., Canada (VLM) was leveraged to better understand the scale of road salt inputs to local streams and identify factors that influence the magnitude and occurrence of these contamination events. Specific conductance data from these loggers indicate that road salt is entering creeks, resulting in brief salt pulses that typically last 1 day or less. Road salt pulses occur as frequently as three times per week in winter months and can attain maximum chloride concentrations above British Columbia’s acute guideline for chloride (600 mg/L Cl−) by as much as 11-fold in streams. The amount of road salt entering creeks is influenced by the extent of impervious surface in the surrounding catchment basin, with more urbanized creeks receiving higher inputs. Interestingly, cumulative salt inputs do not correlate with winter severity and remain consistent even during mild winters. Acute pulses of road salt occur in VLM streams between November and March, coinciding with the spawning and incubation period of locally important Pacific salmon species such as coho and chum salmon. This timing poses a direct risk to developing salmonids, and the benthic invertebrates which sustain them later in development.