Online
Winter Salt Week
media release: Monday, January 26, to Friday, January 30, daily livestreams 12:30pm CT (Friday features back to back livestreams starting at 11 am).
Winter Salt Week will feature daily live streams from ecologists, public works staff, and policymakers from across the United States. Everyone can learn more about the environmental toll of de-icers, private industry successes, actions that states are taking, and how individuals can get involved!
Monday: Freshwater Salinization
Get the big-picture view of freshwater salinization and why it’s emerging as a critical water-quality challenge across the country. We’ll break down the major drivers, the ecological and infrastructure impacts, and the trends scientists are tracking in rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Then we’ll zoom in on a real-world case study from the Occoquan Reservoir, where researchers and managers are grappling with the complex mix of land use, weather patterns, and human behavior that fuels rising chloride levels. This case will illustrate both the challenges and the practical management strategies communities can use to protect their drinking water supplies.
Presenters
Dr. Stanley Grant is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, and director of the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Lab (OWML) in Northern Virginia. He studies pollutant fate and transport through aquatic systems. In 2020, Stan and his team were awarded a $3.6M NSF-funded Growing Convergence Research grant to study novel approaches for managing inland freshwater salinization.
Dr. Megan Rippy is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at VT, stationed at the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Lab in northern Virginia. Her professional interests include 1) the effects of urban stormwater on aquatic ecosystems and public health, 2) characterization and modeling of green infrastructure co-benefits and their social, ecological, and hydrological drivers and 3) urban water security (particularly during times of drought). She is currently working on extending ecosystem service valuation frameworks to include constructed urban greenspaces like green stormwater infrastructure, and is part of a multi-university team working together to characterize how green infrastructure is perceived by the public, and what drives those perceptions. Ecosystem Services Lab website.
Want to know more?
Researcher studies the power of native plants to combat road salt pollution (January, 2025)
Salt levels in drinking water could be near tipping point (November, 2022)
Tuesday: Salt Wise Stories
Hear directly from winter maintenance practitioners who have made the shift to smarter salting. In this webinar, they’ll share how they built the business case for change—reducing costs, improving efficiency, and protecting local waters. You’ll learn how they retooled their operations, from equipment upgrades to staff training, and what results they’ve seen on the ground. These leaders now pay it forward by educating peers, supporting contractors, and inspiring communities to adopt Salt Wise practices of their own.
Presenters
Phill Sexton is a 30-year veteran of the winter and landscape management industries. He was a managing partner in the Maryland-based Brickman Group (now BrightView), the nation’s largest landscape and winter management company. He was the founder of Brickman’s Upstate NY region and also expanded and managed their Connecticut markets. As a technician, manager, executive and company owner, his growing concern about the environmental impacts of his trade and evolving interest in sustainable best practices led him to develop his company. In 2011, he founded WIT Advisers. As the Chief Knowledge Officer for the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA), Phill literally “wrote the book” on training and best practices for the winter management industry. He is well known as practitioner, educator, author and adviser.
Aron Rodman owns Extra Mile Snow Plowing LLC in West Bend, Wisconsin. They are the community’s largest snow and ice removal company, and have been providing exceptional snow-clearing services for 15 years. They pride themselves on the newest cutting-edge technology in the realm of plowing to ensure a cleaner scrape to reduce salt usage. Aron has presented at the SIMA Midwest Snow and Ice Conference in 2024 and 2025. Listen to a short podcast with Aron discussing frequently asked questions on snow removal. Watch his 2025 webinar “Less Salt, More Profit: The Smarter Future of Snow and Ice Management.”
Wednesday: Smart Salting Contracts
Knowing how to ask for best practices can be difficult. If you aren’t an industry professional, you likely feel out of your league when deciphering terms like deicing vs anti-icing, pre-treatment vs pre-wet. What chemical deicers should you ask for or steer away from? Learn the basics about industry best practices and valuable resources that are available to support you to get the services you need and reduce liability at your property.
Presenters
Martin Tirado has been the CEO of the Snow & Ice Management Association for over 18 years with the mission of empowering snow and ice management professionals for success.
Jim Turcan serves as the president of Cornerstone Partners Horticultural Services Co. Cornerstone provides an array of commercial and residential services from landscape design and maintenance to snow and ice management. Their teams are led by Certified Snow Professionals (CSP) and Advanced Snow Managers (ASM), who are educated in the most up-to-date industry techniques and materials for anti-icing, deicing, and snow and ice management. They use environmentally friendly and non-corrosive materials when possible, and utilize liquid brine anti-icing and deicing solutions for select sites.
Thursday: Engineering Solutions
Discover how innovative engineering can dramatically reduce the need for winter salt. This webinar will highlight design approaches—such as optimized grading, drainage, and material choices—that set the stage for safer, more efficient winter maintenance. We’ll also explore the growing role of smart sensors and connected infrastructure in tracking conditions in real time. Finally, learn how AI-driven storm management tools can support crews in making faster, more precise decisions that keep surfaces safe while minimizing salt use.
Presenters
Connie Fortin is the low salt strategist at Bolton & Menk and a nationally recognized leader in chloride reduction strategies. As the inventor of the low salt design approach, Connie has pioneered innovative methods to minimize salt use in winter maintenance, infrastructure design, and planning, helping communities protect freshwater resources while maintaining public safety. Her work bridges science, design, and policy, empowering engineers, and decision-makers to implement sustainable, low-impact solutions that reduce chloride pollution at the source.
Wilf Nixon is the director of public works for the city of Pella, Iowa, a position he started in fall 2025. Prior to that, he served as the president of the Professional Snowfighters Association, a winter maintenance consulting business. Wilf was a key developer of the American Public Works Association Winter Maintenance Certificate programs. He regularly writes a column for the APWA Reporter on winter maintenance and speaks at National APWA Conferences on topics ranging from winter maintenance, to AI, to employee retention, and more.
Friday (11 am): Advocating for Change
Presenters
Abby Hileman is the salt watch coordinator at the Izaak Walton League of America. She leads the efforts of the Salt Watch program, expanding the project into new regions across the country, reaching new groups of volunteers, and providing resources to make lasting change—from data to action. She has a passion for connecting people to their communities and to nature and believes that small scale actions add up to make a big impact on conservation success.
Mary Rooney is the founder and lead organizer of the Pennsylvania Road Salt Action Working Group. Mary founded the PA Road Salt Action Working Group in January 2026 to address one of Pennsylvania’s pressing, but often overlooked, environmental challenges: the growing impact of winter salt applications on waterways, infrastructure, and public health. Through this initiative, she has combined her expertise in environmental engineering, regulatory navigation, and volunteer coordination to mobilize communities, influence policy, and protect Pennsylvania’s waterways. Her work reflects a commitment to building sustainable advocacy systems that balance winter safety with long-term environmental health.
Friday (noon): Salt Monitoring 101
Want to make a difference? Let’s talk practical ways to mobilize your community, collaborate with local leaders, and champion policies that support smarter winter maintenance.
Presenters
Lauren Eaton is the monitoring mnager at Friends of the Rouge and joined the team in 2023. She is so excited to be a steward of the watershed and to affect positive change for all beings that live in and around the Rouge River. She has volunteered for many years with the Huron River Watershed Council, and some of her most memorable learning moments were outside or in the stream during those volunteer events so she hopes to be able to foster moments like those for others by serving as the Monitoring Manager.
Prior to working at Friends of the Rouge, Lauren was a contractor working for the United States Geological Survey’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLSC). At the GLSC, Lauren worked on projects monitoring larval fish, zooplankton, and water quality in Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie, as well as the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers. She studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Aquatic Ecology at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Paige Vichiola-Silva is the water quality manager at the Farmington River Watershed Association. Her work involves assessing the health of our watershed throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut by conducting water quality monitoring and research projects. Paige manages the chloride monitoring program and various in-situ continuous data loggers for temperature, conductivity, water level, and dissolved oxygen. She is responsible for managing data, conducting data analysis, and ensuring that quality assurance and quality control align with data quality objectives. Additionally, Paige writes research reports and the annual water quality report.
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