Senator Betty Little welcomes county and town highway superintendents in her Albany office on their annual “Local Roads Matter!” Advocacy Day. Little, who is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year, was presented a personalized work helmet in recognition of her years of support for increased funding for local roads and bridge projects.
The State Senate today gave final legislative approval of legislation to create a task force and pilot-program study with the goal of reducing the amount of road salt applied to state highways in the Adirondack Park each winter.
Senator Betty Little and Western New York Senator Tim Kennedy, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, sponsored the legislation, which passed the Assembly on Monday.
“When it comes to keeping our lakes, rivers and streams and water wells clean, the old adage of an ‘ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure’ certainly fits,” said Little.
“The good news, as we’ve seen in municipalities such as Lake George where there has been a tremendous focus on this issue, is that newer equipment and utilizing technology is helping our local highway departments do their incredibly important work of keeping our roadways safe while cutting back on road salt usage. My hope is that we can do the same throughout the Park. A comprehensive study, including a pilot program, would give us the data we need to develop best practices.”
Little said the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College has studied the issue for numerous years and found hundreds of instances of high sodium contamination in wells downslope of state highways with some exceeding federal standards for safe drinking. High salinity can contribute to high blood pressure and destroy plumbing and household appliances, pollute streams, rivers and lakes and negatively impact wildlife and soil quality.
The “Randy Preston Road Salt Reduction Act,” named in honor of the long-time Wilmington Supervisor and Adirondack champion who passed away last July, would create a 14-member task force of appointed state and local stakeholders. The task force would conduct a thorough review of road salt application within the Adirondack Park and provide a public report to the governor and State Legislature with recommendations of road salt reduction targets and best management practices by September 1, 2021.
That report would inform the road salt reduction pilot plan and test program to be led by the Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Conservation. Between October 15 and June 30, beginning 2021 through 2024, the pilot plan would test best management practices on all state-owned roadways within the boundary of the Adirondack Park. A variety of application techniques and road management strategies would be tested while monitoring surface and ground water.
Following the completion of the pilot plan and test, the DOT and DEC would submit a report to the governor and State Legislature by August 30, 2024, detailing the impact on road safety and water quality in the Adirondack Park.
The bill will return to the Assembly before being delivered to Governor Andrew Cuomo for consideration.