Trends and legacy of freshwater salinization: untangling over 50 years of stream chloride monitoring

Abstract

Abstract Excessive use of road salts to maintain safe winter travel conditions leads to increasing chloride (Cl) concentrations in streams, damaging the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems. Long-term increasing stream Cl trends are generally attributed to increases in urban land cover, however recent research shows that even relatively rural streams can retain Cl and exceed water quality guidelines in summer after road salting has stopped. Untangling the relative influences of long-term changes in streamflow and urban growth on Cl trends is critical for making informed decisions about road salt management. The portion of Cl trends not explained by changes in streamflow or urban growth could be due to changes in road salt application rates and/or legacy Cl in groundwater that is slowly making its way to streams. This study assessed seasonal, long-term stream Cl trends across the Province of Ontario, Canada, where urbanization accelerated and road salt management plans started to develop since early 2000s. We compared stream Cl trends over salting and non-salting seasons with urban growth estimates from two independent time periods, 1965–1995 and 2002–2018. For a subset of sites with sufficient flow data in the periods analyzed, we parsed the seasonal trends into flow and management trend components. We found that most of the variance in the management trend component in the winter salting season could be explained by urbanization, while about half of it could be explained in the summer non-salting season. We further analyzed Cl estimates in low-flow conditions to explore the extent of subsurface contributions to Cl trends, and concluded with a summary of challenges and recommendations for future studies on road salt legacy in streams.