Salt Watch is a program of the Izaak Walton League of America.

Volunteers monitor lakes, streams, stormwater ponds, and snowmelt in their neighborhoods. The data helps our organization monitor the chloride levels in nearby waterways and locate hotspots where chloride sources might be high. 

Service learning

Join an individual or a group. There are a number of educational resources such as videos and lesson plans around chloride pollution. Participating in Salt Watch can be a great service-learning opportunity for youth groups, schools, homeschool groups, and more.  

• Volunteers select a location to monitor. This can be a lake, stream, pond, or snowmelt flowing off your property on warm days. The site you choose should remain the same for all tests.
• Volunteers are sent a kit which includes 4 chloride test strips.
• Each kit contains directions on how to use the test strips, take the sample, and upload the data.
• Enter your data into the Clean Water Hub included in the directions and you are done. Make sure to add "Carver County Water Management Organization" as the organization.

Why monitor for chloride?

Chloride levels are on the rise in lakes and streams across Minnesota. So far, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has identified 68 lakes with chloride levels above state standards and over 75 more that are at risk.

Sodium chloride is a chemical compound often used as a deicer that helps remove ice by lowering its melting temperature. The chloride part of that chemical sticks around in our environment, causing chloride pollution. In lakes and rivers, high chloride levels are toxic to fish, aquatic insects, amphibians, and the whole aquatic ecosystem. It has been shown to dry out amphibian eggs causing reduced hatching and death. It reduces growth in fish and affects development and reproduction. Also, it keeps lakes from having spring and fall “turnovers” which is a natural mixing process that redistributes oxygen in lakes. It doesn’t take much – just one teaspoon of salt contains enough chloride to permanently pollute five gallons of water!

It affects more than just water. Salt is corrosive, damaging parking lots, walkways, and buildings. According to the EPA, maintenance and repair of salt damage to roads, bridges, and automobiles in the U.S. costs around $5 billion each year.  

Carver County's chloride monitoring program and results

Sign up

Contact for questions or to request a kit. 

Madeline Seveland
mseveland@carvercountymn.gov 
(612) 497-9729