Outline of the Ministère des Transports du Québec's Approach to the Environmental Management of Road Salts

About 800,000 tonnes of road salts are spread each year on the network of the ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) to ensure road user safety during winter. Aware of the negative impacts of road salts on the environment, the MTQ undertook a continual improvement approach to ensure more responsible management of road salts by seeking to implement best practices and find alternatives to traditional de-icing methods. The actions put forward by the MTQ are gathered together in annual action plans, which are part of the MTQ's road salt management plans. Ensuring the quality of road salt at the supply stage or during storage is essential, as is preventing and controlling salt runoff. Tools were developed to ensure quality road salt supplies and share best practices in material storage and handling. An evaluation grid was also designed to analyze all the components of each storage site and determine whether or not they comply with best practices. Improving road salt management also implies better planning operations so as to spread the right amount of road salts at the proper time. This is why tools, such as 49 fixed road weather stations and over 140 mobile road weather stations were made available to operational decision makers. Pilot projects were also carried out to experiment alternatives to traditional de-icing methods. The MTQ intends to pursue its efforts by implementing specific actions each year to improve road salt management.