MCSPC director featured on WGME CBS 13

Center director Jonathan Rubin was interviewed on WGME CBS 13 for a feature titled ‘Can we get away with a little less?’ Road salt harming environment, infrastructure.

The Maine DOT uses 16 tons of rock salt to keep 8,300 lane miles safe for traveling. This salt use comes not only a great economic cost to purchase the rock salt and repair the infrastructure damaged by its use; it comes at an environmental cost as well.

Rubin notes that road salt can pollute wells used for drinking water. Salinated run off can also damage the ecosystems of freshwater streams and lakes. He explained that the long-term impacts of road salt usage is unclear: “there’s no question it will cause damage, but how much damage I don’t think we know yet.”

To watch or read the story in its entirety, it can be accessed on WGME’s website here.