Over 40 million tons of salt are used in the US each year, with 30% used for road de-icing. While effective, it can harm ecosystems and drinking water. The US produces most of its own salt, including from a mine in Detroit. The word ‘salary’ may have originated from Roman soldiers being paid in salt.
Over 40 million tons of salt are used in the United States each year in a variety of applications. About 30% of that salt, or about 12 million tons, is used in the road de-icing process. Salt can aid snow fighters in clearing roads, as it lowers the temperature at which water can freeze. Using road salt was a statewide method first adopted from New Hampshire in the early 1940s and quickly spread across the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. While using salt is currently the cheapest method of de-icing highways and is considered very effective at reducing accident rates, it does have drawbacks. First, introducing so much salt into waterways each year can destroy ecosystems and lead to contamination of drinking water supplies.
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The United States produces most of the salt it consumes, through mining, solar evaporation and vacuum evaporation.
The salt mine under Detroit was started in 1906 and is currently approximately 1160 feet deep, covering an area of over 1500 acres.
Ancient Roman legionaries were paid in salt, and this is thought to be the origin of the word ‘salary’.
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