Mapping Road Salt Storage Facilities in Vermont’s Lake Champlain Basin

The use of deicing materials (road salt) in Vermont has increased in the past decades. Chemical constituents associated with deicing materials can potentially pose a risk to drinking water quality. While deicing materials applied to roads represent a distributed, ephemeral source of salts, deicing material storage facilities are a potential year-round source of materials that can impact drinking water wells. This talk describes a 2022 study that included the development of a geospatial database of deicing storage facilities in the Vermont portion of the Lake Champlain basin and an evaluation of the potential for drinking water impacts in vulnerable communities.