Assisting New Jersey Community Water Monitoring Programs
About NJ Salt Watch
A proud partner of the Izaak Walton League’s national Salt Watch program, NJ Salt Watch launched in December 2020 after NJDEP data showed that median chloride levels have tripled in the state since 1997. Since then, hundreds of volunteers have collected about 5,000 chloride measurements across the state. Volunteer scientists select their favorite New Jersey freshwater stream, river, lake, or pond and return to that location multiple times to track how chloride levels change over time in response to winter road salting.
Save the Date for our Salt Snapshot: October 15-18
Please visit your NJ Salt Watch sites anytime between Thursday, October 15 to Sunday, October 18 to collect a baseline chloride measurement before the winter season begins! We’re partnering with the Stroud Water Research Center to coordinate a large-scale monitoring event to compare baseline chloride readings across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
How to Participate
Request your test strips: Submit an online request form (see link in menu above) to receive your free chloride test strips by mail. The mail has been less reliable lately, so please contact us at njsaltwatch@thewatershed.org if your kit has not arrived within 3 weeks.
Pick a stream or lake site to monitor: Target waterbodies can be located in any part of New Jersey, but must be freshwater. We are interested in data from multiple types of land uses (i.e. urban, rural, agricultural). You will return to collect a measurement from your waterbody several times, so make sure the site is safe and accessible.
Most waterbodies in New Jersey are freshwater and nontidal, but if you live near the coast, you may be wondering if your waterbody meets this criteria. Click here to head to the NJ GeoWeb map system and zoom in on your location. If your intended monitoring location is downstream of the head of tide (the blue target), you’re good to go.
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 a baseline measurement before the snow season begins.
Return to your site to use up your test strips before the end of April/May: 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!
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
You may use your older test strips as long as they are not expired! The lot numbers of test strips are labeled in your kit and are listed below with their expiration dates.
2025-2027 Lots
- Lot # A5363A: 12/2027
- Lot # A5330A: 11/2027
- 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 falls between 30-650 mg/l chloride. If your test strip reading is below the range of the conversion chart, enter ‘0’ mg/l. If your reading is “off the charts”, or above the range of the chart, enter ‘650’ mg/l. This does not mean that your actual reading was 0 or 650 mg/l, but we use these values as placeholder numbers.
Please don’t try to estimate the average chloride concentration between two Quantab units on the test strip. Find the closest unit, skewing higher if the measurement is truly in the middle, to find the corresponding chloride measurement on the chart.
Feel free to test your water body whenever it is convenient for you, as long as your test strips are not expired! (See above for lot #s and expiration dates.)
Increased chloride levels persist through spring, as winter salt works through the soil, and summer, as drought conditions concentrate chloride in surface waters. Fall is a typical season for “baseline” measurements and winter is when chloride is actively being applied to the roads. We’re interested in data collected across all of these different conditions.
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 impacted by freshwater salinization. Click here to view the map in a new window.
Stay tuned for an updated data map!
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 project to develop a regionally-specific ratings curve between chloride and conductivity to expand our ability to measure the impact of road salt using continuous sensors.
NJ Salt Watch is a proud partner of the the Izaak Walton League of America’s (IWLA) national Salt Watch project. Click here to view current nationwide chloride data on the Clean Water Hub.
How to Reduce your Salt Footprint
Salt doesn’t just disappear when the snow melts. It flows into waterways, destroying freshwater ecosystems and contaminating drinking water sources. Almost all large-scale drinking water treatment plants in New Jersey cannot remove salt. That means that much of what we apply outside can make its way into the water coming out of our taps. Fortunately, there are many solutions to reduce the amount of winter salt we use – at home, at work, on municipal and state roads, and through smarter regulations and policies.
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.
More Tools for Sustainable Salt Application and Advocacy
Learn more with 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)
Salt Watch is a program of the Izaak Walton League of America.
