With treacherous weather across the Pacific Northwest, Salmon-Safe recognizes the wintertime balance between public safety on ice- or snow-covered roads and environmental protection. We seek to inform companies and institutions that have achieved Salmon-Safe accreditation and certification, including road maintenance departments, about options for reducing toxicity of road deicing chemicals and potential negative effects on salmon and other aquatic life in water bodies receiving road runoff.
From a salmon protection perspective, the specification of a deicer should be especially carefully evaluated when a road drains to any relatively small, salmon-supporting water body. If deicer use cannot be avoided in such cases, the best protection is to channel runoff through an extensive vegetated area to capture and hold the potentially harmful deicer components.
