Leaching of salt from salt and salt-sand stockpiles has the potential to impact both downgradient drinking water supplies and surface water resources and can result in degradation of groundwater and surface water quality to levels above federal and state standards. In many instances, mitigating and improving impacted soils and groundwater through traditional excavation or pump-and-treat remediation methods, followed by long-term monitoring, can be costly and time intensive. Looking for alternative, cost-effective ways to mitigate the impacts of salt leaching from salt and salt-sand stockpiles could benefit transportation departments by reducing the overall remedial costs and shortening the life cycle of monitoring and mitigation.

This study will test whether plants may be able to remediate soils in contaminated areas by absorbing chloride from the soil and water and store the chloride in above ground leaf tissue. Native and non-native salt tolerant plants will be considered. The project will use soil sampling from roadsides and MDT sites to determine experimental salt levels. A greenhouse experiment will test how different plant species perform under the determined salt levels in soil. Plant tissue will be analyzed to determine if and where plants are storing absorbed chloride from the soil. Top performing plants from the greenhouse study will be used in the field trial to test phytoremediation at contaminated sites.