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Each year, Canadians spend over $1 billion in winter maintenance costs to clear snow/ice on public and private roads, parking lots and sidewalks, this includes the use and application of greater than 5 million tonnes of rock salt for both deicing and anti-icing operations (Hossain et al., 2015)<ref>Hossain, S.K., Fu, L. and Lake, R., 2015. Field evaluation of the performance of alternative deicers for winter maintenance of transportation facilities. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 42(7), pp.437-448. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjce-2014-0423</ref>. While the use of salt is essential to ensure public safety, there is a growing concern regarding the large quantities of salt (mainly chloride ions), being released to the environment.
→Design Strategies for Salt Reduction
==Design Strategies for Salt Reduction==
==Design Strategies for Salt Reduction==
In their 2001 assessment under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, it was found that high releases of road salts from winter maintenance activities were having an adverse effect on freshwater ecosystems, soil, vegetation, and wildlife (Environment Canada, 2001)<ref>Environment Canada. 2001. PRIORITY SUBSTANCES LIST ASSESSMENT REPORT. Road Salts. Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. Environment Canada and Health Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/migration/hc-sc/ewh-semt/alt_formats/hecs-sesc/pdf/pubs/contaminants/psl2-lsp2/road_salt_sels_voirie/road_salt_sels_voirie-eng.pdf</ref>. Based on this conclusion, Environment Canada developed its “[https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/ec/En49-31-1-5-eng.pdf Code of Practice the Environmental Management of Road Salts],” which focuses mainly on municipal and provincial road maintenance. This code, which requires the development of Salt Management Plans for those organizations using more than 500 tonnes of road salt annually, was released by Environment Canada in 2004 (Environment Canada, 2004)<ref>Environment Canada. 2004. Code of practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts. Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999). April 2004. EPS 1/CC/5. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/ec/En49-31-1-5-eng.pdf</ref>. While the uptake of this code of practice has been successful for municipalities, there is not a similar recognized guideline for parking lot contractors. That said, there are studies and training programs that address this issue, which aims to educate private contractors about best practices, and how these can improve their level of service, protect the environment, and reduce associated costs. However, uptake of these programs has been low. To address this gap, LSRCA and its partner agencies identified a need for a guideline document that could be used by designers, regulatory agencies, owners, contractors, and others to consider design elements in the design and layout of parking lots and related infrastructure that can help to reduce the requirement for salt application. This effort culminated in the development of [https://www.lsrca.on.ca/parking-lot-guidelines LSRCA's Parking Lot Design Guidelines]<ref>LSRCA. n.d. Parking Lot Design Guidelines. Webpage. Accessed 25, Mar. 25. 2022. https://www.lsrca.on.ca/parking-lot-guidelines</ref>
In their 2001 assessment under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, it was found that high releases of road salts from winter maintenance activities were having an adverse effect on freshwater ecosystems, soil, vegetation, and wildlife (Environment Canada, 2001)<ref>Environment Canada. 2001. PRIORITY SUBSTANCES LIST ASSESSMENT REPORT. Road Salts. Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. Environment Canada and Health Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/migration/hc-sc/ewh-semt/alt_formats/hecs-sesc/pdf/pubs/contaminants/psl2-lsp2/road_salt_sels_voirie/road_salt_sels_voirie-eng.pdf</ref>. Based on this conclusion, Environment Canada developed its “[https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/ec/En49-31-1-5-eng.pdf Code of Practice the Environmental Management of Road Salts],” which focuses mainly on municipal and provincial road maintenance. This code, which requires the development of Salt Management Plans for those organizations using more than 500 tonnes of road salt annually, was released by Environment Canada in 2004 (Environment Canada, 2004)<ref>Environment Canada. 2004. Code of practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts. Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999). April 2004. EPS 1/CC/5. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/ec/En49-31-1-5-eng.pdf</ref>. While the uptake of this code of practice has been successful for municipalities, there is not a similar recognized guideline for parking lot contractors. That said, there are studies and training programs that address this issue, which aims to educate private contractors about best practices, and how these can improve their level of service, protect the environment, and reduce associated costs. However, uptake of these programs has been low. To address this gap, LSRCA and its partner agencies identified a need for a guideline document that could be used by designers, regulatory agencies, owners, contractors, and others to consider design elements in the design and layout of parking lots and related infrastructure that can help to reduce the requirement for salt application. This effort culminated in the development of [https://www.lsrca.on.ca/parking-lot-guidelines LSRCA's Parking Lot Design Guidelines]<ref>LSRCA. n.d. Parking Lot Design Guidelines. Webpage. Accessed 25, Mar. 25. 2022. https://www.lsrca.on.ca/parking-lot-guidelines</ref>