Modeling salinization and recovery of road salt-impacted lakes in temperate regions based on long-term monitoring of Lake George, New York (USA) and its drainage basin

Highlights: • Long-term road salt application accumulates salt in soils and receiving waters. • Salt (NaCl) concentration in Lake George, NY increased 30-fold from 1940 to 2009. • Ca⁺², Mg⁺², and Na⁺ increased in runoff and the lake from soil ion exchange of Na⁺. • Models are presented for trends of tributary cations and Cl⁻ in temperate lakes. • Na⁺ from salt and H⁺ from acid deposition displace soil cations in a similar manner. Road salt mitigates winter highway icing but accumulates in watershed soils and receiving waters, affecting soil chemistry and physical, biological, and ecological processes. Despite efforts to reduce salt loading in watersheds, accumulated cations and Cl⁻ continue to impact tributaries and lakes, and the recovery process is not well understood. Lake George, New York (USA) is typical of many temperate lakes at risk for elevated Cl⁻ concentrations from winter deicing; the lake salt concentration increased by ~3.4% year⁻¹ since 1980. Here, we evaluated the ionic composition in Finkle Brook, a major watershed draining to Lake George, studied intermittently since 1970 and typical of other salt-impacted Lake George tributaries. Salt loading in the Lake George basin since the 1940s displaced cations from exchange sites in basin soils; these desorbed cations follow a simple ion-exchange model, with lower sodium and higher calcium, magnesium and potassium fluxes in runoff. Reduced salt application in the Finkle Brook watershed during the low-snow winter of 2015–2016 led to a 30–40% decline of Cl⁻ and base cations in the tributary, implying a Cl⁻ soil half-life of 1–2 years. We developed a conceptual model that describes cation behavior in runoff from a watershed that received road salt loading over a long period of time, and then recovery following reduced salt loading. Next, we developed a dynamic model estimating time to steady-state for Cl⁻ in Lake George with road salt loading starting in 1940, calibrating the model with tributary runoff and lake chemistry data from 1970 and 1980, respectively, and forecasting Cl⁻ concentrations in Lake George based on various scenarios of salt loading and soil retention of Cl⁻. Our Lake George models are readily adaptable to other temperate lakes with drainage basins where road salt is applied during freezing conditions and paved roads cover a portion of the watershed.