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Policy Id:

SPR/SPA:

Risk:

Sa1EF-EO

Nickel District

Significant

Implementing Body

Legal Effect

Policy Tool

Threat Type

Status

Comment

Greater Sudbury City of - (Municipality)

Conform with

Education / Outreach

Future

Implemented

The road salt and snow policy required community outreach concerning the application, handling and storage of road salt and the storage of snow. The Children’s Water Festival is one of the main events used to educate grade 3 students along with their teachers about water related issues such as possible impacts from road salt and snow melt water. The Children’s Water Festival took place at Terry Fox Complex, located at 17 Lasalle Blvd., Sudbury on September 20th & 21st, 2023. The in-person event hosted 600 grade 3 students, teachers and chaperons over the course of two days: Children's Water Festival (greatersudbury.ca).The event featured activity stations based around different water themes such as conservation, efficiency, protection, science, and technology. EarthCare continues to utilize CTV as a means of conveying environmental messaging. In 2023, CTV aired EarthCare Minutes titled: ‘Street Sweeping’, ‘Ice Fishing’ and ‘Winter Salt Management’. They were estimated to have each reached 80,000 viewers. EarthCare Minute videos that pertain to this policy are: ‘Ice Fishing’, ‘Spring flood prevention’, ‘Street sweeping’ and ‘Winter Salt Management’ and can be viewed on YouTube at any time. Social media was used as a means of community outreach by posting on the EarthCare Sudbury Facebook page with over 900 followers. In the fall of 2022, a Road Salt campaign was launched and continued during the winter months of 2023. The campaign distributed over 400 handouts related to materials on responsible salt use to local businesses. The materials included a “parking lot infographic” with winter preparedness tips, a Smart About Salt training and certification Coupon, a Source Water Protection Zone Map, and a Salt Cup Flyer. In addition, 2000 salt cups were distributed to the public and businesses to demonstrate the ideal amount of salt to apply. The campaign was promoted on social media and led to high engagement and traffic on the City of Greater Sudbury website. Also in November 2022, an article was posted through Sudbury.com, under the “Green Living” segment which was titled: “Is winter salt the best option for your icy walkway?”. This article discussed how the overuse of salt can lead to many environmental issues and demonstrated when/how to properly apply salt or salt alternatives to reduce the impact to the environment: GREEN LIVING: Is winter salt the best option for your icy walkway? - Sudbury News. This article was shared 17 times in 2023. Furthermore, from January to October 2023, there have been over 125 views on the City’s website concerning “Commercial and Home Salt Use”: Commercial and Home Salt Use (greatersudbury.ca) Next steps include participation at events to provide messaging and educational material. Plans are in place to host information sessions for targeted audiences, conduct surveys, improve CTV ads about Road Salt and Snow Storage and create new and updated EarthCare Minutes. Also, the development of new education and outreach materials for residents and business about salt use including salt cups and pamphlets will continue and opportunities to offer discounted Smart About Salt training to contractors will be explored.

Policy Text:

The City of Greater Sudbury shall create and deliver an education and outreach program to those residents, businesses, institutions and contractors who could be applying, handling and storing road salt and/or storing snow in the vulnerable areas where the activities could be a significant threat. The program will educate residents, businesses, institutions and contractors about:

 The impact of salt on drinking water and the environment;
 Standards for the application of road salt and salt alternatives; and
 Best management practices and recommendations to reduce the amount of salt used and to reduce the deleterious effects of snow storage runoff.

The program could also include:
 Educating suppliers;
 Educating school-aged children; and
 A “yellow fish” type program to mark storm sewer drains to remind people that water from storm sewers drains to bodies of water.

Monitoring policy M4 applies.

Monitoring Text:

M4: By February 1 of each year, the City of Greater Sudbury and the Municipality of Markstay-Warren (if applicable) shall report to the Source Protection Authority with a description of the measures taken to implement the education and outreach program in the Source Protection Plan in the previous calendar year. The report could also include a description of the steps taken to determine the extent to which the program has achieved its objectives, any information on the results of those steps, and any suggestions for improvement. The municipalities could also provide a copy of any materials produced and the number of participants reached by the program.