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Milwaukee — Because road salt is so often used to melt snow, Milwaukee Riverkeepers bring in volunteer road salt monitors to test their environmental impact.
Dean Schultz has been one of those volunteers for ten years. He tested the waters of his Pigeon Creek in Thiensville.
“As this is moving closer to urban areas, there will be more streets and closer proximity to each other, resulting in increased salinity. There is,” said Schultz.
Schultz filled the bottle with water and pulled out a conductivity sensor so he could measure the amount of road salt in the stream.
According to his sensor, the conductivity level is around 900.
“At 2,100, the fish are dead, so in my head I want to be under 1,000,” says Schultz.
Sheryl Nen is the Milwaukee Riverkeeper. The project was created in 2010 out of concerns about how road salt would affect local wildlife, she said.
“Over the past decade or so, we have found that about 117 miles of 500-mile perennial creek streams are constantly flowing. , actually contains unhealthy levels of salt that are harmful to fish, mussels and other aquatic life, and if volunteers hadn’t been out in such weather, we wouldn’t have gotten that information,” Nen said. Told.
Growing up on a farm in northern Wisconsin, Schultz learned the importance of clean water. He wants to encourage others to do the same.
“I do have the opportunity to do a little bit of mission work in terms of talking to people about salt use and ways to reduce salt use. Told.
His latest samples show that Pigeon Creek is in good shape, and he wants to play a role in maintaining it.
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