EHHD Investigates Salt Pollution on Robbie Road

Tolland resident Andrew Levesque knows that the upcoming winter will be bringing more snow to his home, but he also hopes that the end of the season will bring an answer to a pressing question: is road salt contaminating his home's well water?

"I've got a problem," Levesque said. "It's a big problem."

Levesque has had elevated sodium and chloride levels at his Robbie Road home since this summer. The Town of Tolland has been made aware of Levesque's problem and is currently monitoring his well water in association with the Eastern Highlands Health District to determine the source of salt contamination.

Levesque, however, discovered the problem on his own. He explained that he was driven to test his water after his neighbors asked him this summer if his water was tasting strange. They had found elevated sodium chloride levels in their own well, according to Levesque.

He started with a simple taste test, first drinking a sample of store-bought bottled water, followed by his own tap water.

"Drinking them back to back, it was a huge difference," Levesque said. "It's high enough that you'd stop drinking it."

Levesque's initial raw water test (the water is tested pre-treatment i.e. water softener, etc.) showed his sodium and chloride levels to be extremely high at 315 milligrams per liter and 530 milligrams per liter, respectively. He says that his water levels in 2005 tested at 61 milligrams per liter for sodium and 47 milligrams per liter for chloride.

The state Department of Public Health recommends that sodium and chloride levels do not exceed 28 milligrams per liter and 250 milligrams per liter.

According to Eastern Highlands Health District Director of Health Robert Miller, the maximum levels are generally in place due to the damage high levels of sodium chloride can wreck on homes, as opposed to health concerns. He said that chloride, in particular, is corrosive to piping. However, he added that high sodium levels can be harmful for those who need to be on a low sodium diet.

Levesque said that he has already seen the effects of elevated levels on his house's pipes.

"What is going to happen and what is happening now is my piping, my boiler and my dishwasher are basically being slowly eaten as we speak. On my shower, the tub spigot, you can actually see a little bit of salt," he said.

His concerns also extend to the contamination's effect on his home's value. According to Levesque, his water could be deemed non-potable due to the elevated levels of chloride.

"That's a big deal, because a house that doesn't have a potable water supply isn't worth a whole lot," he said.

Miller, however, said that the water could still be potable, even with the  elevated levels, although he acknowledges that the issue would still have to be resolved.

"The water is legally potable, but may not be palatable," he said.

The next step for Levesque will be to determine how his water is becoming contaminated. He said, in his own opinion, a unlined drainage easement that he says collects water running off of Robbie Road and channels it onto his property is to blame for the problem.

"I believe it's road salt that's driving these levels up," Levesque said. In his letter to the Tolland Water Commission, written in August, Levesque quoted the research of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services that cites the use of salt for road de-icing as a common cause for water contamination.

In order to determine if that is indeed the case, the Eastern Highlands Health District will be comparing Levesque's salt levels before and after the winter season. They must rule out a variety of other cause for contamination, including the use of water softener, the well's construction and topography of the land, according to Miller.

Miller said that the Eastern Highland Health District has conducted a site survey and will monitor Levesque's well into the spring. He did say that the well is an older model.

"It is an older well," he said. "We haven't been able to ascertain an exact construction type," Miller said. "Its construction doesn't appear to be compliant with modern well standards."

In his appeal letter to the Tolland Water Commission, Levesque said that his well is drilled 254 feet deep.

Director of Public Works Clem Langlois, Jr. said that the town has been using salt almost exclusively to treat icy roads since the 2008-2009 season. Previously, the town used a salt and sand mixture to treat roads.

However, this does not necessarily mean that there was an increase in salt use. According to the Snow and Ice Control Plan posted on the town's Web site, the town used 3,391 tons of salt in the 2007-2008 winter, in conjunction with sand. This last winter, which was exceptionally harsh with around 88 inches of snow, the town only used 2,800 tons of salt to treat the town's 132 miles of road, Langlois said.

Langlois added that the salt application is precisely monitored either through computer or careful hand calibration of the town's 12 trucks. The town's trucks are generally set to distribute 150 pounds of salt per mile, which is half that of the state's standard of 300 pounds per mile on two-lane highways.

Theoretically, Langlois said, there should be little threat of pollution since salt's dilution rate is 24 hours. However, he agreed that the Robbie Road situation needs to be examined to determine the cause of the pollution.

"We're going to be monitoring that for awhile now," he said.

The town initially switched to an all-salt process to prevent sand from filling up streams and to save the town the cost of labor to clean the sand up, Langlois said.

Despite all the frustration, Levesque did stress that the town has been responsive to his issue. He said he hopes that he can work with the town to resolve the issue quickly.

"It's a lousy situation," he said, "but we are hopeful that the town leadership will continue to be responsive and will hopefully come up with a solution."