Senate Transportation presses for funding, reportbacks on municipal salt sheds in chloride bill

Chair Westman, chairing the Senate Transportation Committee, pressed the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and committee members Tuesday to make municipal salt sheds a funding priority as lawmakers consider a chloride-reduction bill that touches storage and application of road salt.

The director of DEC’s Watershed Management Division, Mr. LeFlame, told the committee the department supports the bill’s broader goals and emphasized that the draft law singled out salt piles located inside a chosen distance from surface waters. “The option there would be for a community or an applicator to move that over time, over the next 5 years,” Mr. LeFlame said, describing the bill drafters’ selection of a 100-yard distance as the threshold of greatest concern.

Committee members focused on how small and medium communities that lack covered storage or funds will manage a…