Assisting New Jersey Community Water Monitoring Programs
NJ Watershed Watch Network launched NJ Salt Watch in December 2020 to monitor the effects of winter road salting on our freshwater streams and lakes. Since then, about 550 volunteers have collected more than 3,500 chloride measurements across the state, helping to fill in gaps in our understanding of the extent of this issue.
Volunteer scientists select their favorite New Jersey freshwater stream, river, lake, or pond and return to that spot multiple times over winter to track how chloride levels change over time – and after a couple road salt applications.
How to Participate in NJ Salt Watch
Request your test strips: Submit an online request form to receive your free chloride test strips. The package will arrive by mail in a few weeks.
Pick a stream or lake site to monitor: You will return to this site several times this winter, so make sure your site is safe and accessible. The waterbody should be freshwater and nontidal, but can be located in any part of New Jersey. We are interested in data from multiple types of land uses (i.e. urban, rural, agricultural).
Learn about your waterbody: To be eligible for this project, your stream, river, lake, or pond should be freshwater and nontidal. Wondering if your waterbody meets this criteria? Most in New Jersey do, but if you live near the ocean or a tidal river, you should check to make sure. Click here to head to the NJ GeoWeb map system, (give it a second to load and then) zoom in on your location, and see if the head of tide (the blue target) is downstream of your intended monitoring location. If so, you’re good to go. Make sure you have permission to return to this spot several times this winter – public land is fair game!
Visit your site right away after receiving your test strips: This is a great chance to find the best spot to access the water and collect your a baseline measurement before the snow season begins.
Return to your site to use up your test strips before the end of April: Testing takes about 10 minutes, so some volunteers stop at multiple sites during each monitoring event. See below for step-by-step test instructions – and don’t forget to submit your data through the web form as soon as possible! This season, NJ Salt Watch will return to the Survey123 data submission tool, which gives users greater flexibility and allows us to collect weather information and test strip photos.
Winter Storm Monitoring: To find out if chloride levels spike after a road salting event, we are interested in data collected in both dry and wet weather. Take a “dry” measurement when there hasn’t been rain, snow, or snowmelt within 48 hours. Take a measurement on a “wet” day, when rain, snow, or snowmelt washes road salt into the water. Keep an eye on the weather.
NJ Salt Watch FAQs
Lot numbers of our recent test strips are listed below with their expiration dates and printed on your packet of test strips.
2025-2026 Lots
- Lot # A5226A: 7/2027
2024-2025 Lots
- Lot # A4290A: 10/2026
- Lot # A4340A: 11/2025
2023-2024 Lots
- Lot # A3220A: 7/2025
- Lot # A3270A: 9/2025
- Lot # A3346A: 11/2025
2022-2023 Lots
- Lot # 2269: 9/2024
- Lot # 2312: 10/2024
- Lot # 2341: 11/2024
Each test strip lot has a slightly different measurement range, but generally fall between 30-650 mg/l chloride. If your test strip reading is below the conversion chart range, enter ‘0’ mg/l. If your reading is “off the charts”, enter ‘650’ mg/l. This does not mean that your actual reading was 0 or 650 mg/l, but we use these values as placeholders.
Record the closest Quantab unit to find its corresponding chloride reading on the calibration chart. Please don’t try to estimate the average chloride concentration.
You can conduct testing whenever it is convenient for you. The most important thing is to use up your supply of test strips (as long as they are not expired)!
Feel free to sample if you can crack through a relatively shallow layer of ice to sample free-flowing water below. Do not bring ice home with you to thaw for a chloride test because it will not be representative of the ambient surface water conditions.
Chloride Levels in New Jersey
View our assessment of Salt Watch data collected between December 2020 and July 2023 to find out if your municipality or watershed is considered ‘impaired’ for chloride. Click here to view the map in a new window.
NJ Salt Watch data can be used to produce regional assessments of chloride impairment. Click here to view sites and results from the Musconetcong Watershed Association and read about their quest to develop a regionally-specific ratings curve between chloride and conductivity to expand our ability to measure the impact of road salt.
NJ Salt Watch partners with the Izaak Walton League of America’s national Salt Watch project. Click here to view current nationwide chloride data on the Clean Water Hub.
How to Reduce your Salt Footprint
Our friends at the Lake George Association and Wisconsin Salt Wise have developed a great list of resources for you – and your local municipality and state Department of Transportation – to help reduce the amount of salt we use every winter.
Learn more with recent NJ road salt webinars:
Road Salt in New Jersey Technical Friday Webinar (The Watershed Institute, Nov. 11, 2022)
Road Salt Virtual Roundtable (Musconetcong Watershed Association, Nov. 16, 2022)
Deicers and the Environment Webinar (Barnegat Bay Partnership, Feb. 22, 2023)
Sustainable Jersey: Winter Best Practices to Reduce Road Salt Impacts
In October 2023, Sustainable Jersey launched a new action for municipalities to improve winter road maintenance through workforce training, salt application tracking, equipment calibration, and implementation of other best practices. Participation in NJ Salt Watch earns municipalities 5 points toward completion of this action! Click here to learn more about Sustainable Jersey and winter best practices.
Thank you to the Izaak Walton League of America Salt Watch Program for sharing their methods!
