"Salt can contaminate aquifers, corrode pipes, and accelerate snowmelt."
"Humanity is messing with the Earth’s “salt cycle,” with potentially dangerous consequences for drinking water supplies, crop production, and ecosystems. That’s according to a new study published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment on Tuesday. It’s the first time that scientists have documented the extent to which humans have changed the salt content of the land, water, and air across the globe.
Researchers in Maryland and four other states found that 2.5 billion acres of soil around the world have gotten saltier, an area roughly the size of the entire United States, and it’s stressing out plants. Salt is even getting kicked up into the air: In arid regions, “lakes are drying up and sending plumes of saline dust into the atmosphere,” such as the Aral Sea in Central Asia, the study says.
Salt pollution presents an “existential threat to our freshwater supplies,” according to the study. It can corrode drinking water pipes, exacerbating lead pollution in water supplies, as it did in Flint, Michigan. “They had all these lead pipes that were leading to their houses and the chloride would basically pull the lead into solution,” Sujay Kaushal, the study’s lead author, told the Washington Post. “They didn’t add enough corrosion inhibitor, and then kids had high levels of lead in their blood.”"
Kate Yoder reports for Grist October 31, 2023.
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