Thass gone all salty...

[Chris Bishop]

The first freeze up of the winter's here and so are the gritting lorries - except they don't just spread grit any more, they spread tonnes and tonnes of salt.

We don't have that many hills in Norfolk but they've still got 10,000 tonnes of the stuff stockpiled.

Each night's gritting run uses more than 300 tonnes of it.

So what happens to all this salt after they've spread it on the roads..? It gets washed away with all the rain and sleet and it finds its way into our rivers.

I've no idea what the consequences of this are but I doubt they're good.

 

[Rodney Wrestt]

I agree Chris, you read of fish mortalities when sea water gets into rivers. I know it's a smaller scale but I would imagine the fish will still feel the effects.

 

[David Tovey]

Chris, if it were only salt a small dose might do some good.

I have for many years treated my pond fish with salt baths when they have had an ulcer or damaged fins.

I guess that the chemicals used to treat roads would have a less than beneficial effect on our rivers.

It will be interesting to take a water sample after this Winters freeze.

 

[Birds Nest]

Archie Braddock talks about the salt in Rivers on his site somewhere

WWW>Braddocksbait.co.uk

 

[Richard Drayson]

That`s a good point Chris. It`s got me thinking about all the other c**p on the roads that gets washed into the rivers.
With the amount of traffic on our roads today, there must be gallons of oil, petrol, anti-freeze etc entering our waterways. The amounts might be small, but could be doing even more damage than salt.

 

[Ray Bewick]

my two-pennyworth - does anyone remember the prymnesium algae (sorry don't remember the spelling) problems on the broads allegedly caused by saltwater encroachment in the broads system? fish death due to asphyxiation?.

 

[Kevan Farmer]

Richard. Just ask any motorcyclist about the amount of diesel on the roads. There are plenty of main rodas around here - Staffordshire - that have small rivers and brooks running along side them for miles. It's got to accumulate in the waterways.

Kevan

 

[Rob Brownfield]

The salt is not too bad, and when u think about it...its naturally occuring in waters close to the sea/esturies...it does do some good, and its soooo diluted I dont think its a problem...however...the oil, disel, chemicals from farms etc etc do do some damage.

 

[Tony Catling]

I find during the first few days of the road salt entering the river the fishing is c**p until it gets flushed out but find no long term effects.

 

[Carp Angler]

could that be because it coincides with a cold snap and that is why the fish are turned off?