As much of the country endures the heavy snowfall and bitter cold that has marked the start of 2014, municipalities in 26 states will rely on a crucial tool in cleaning their roads: salt. . . But all that salt has to go somewhere. After it dissolves - and is split into sodium and chloride ions - it gets carried away via a runoff and deposited into both surface waters (streams, lakes and rivers) and the groundwater under our feet.
