2025 Salt Symposium

The 26th Salt Symposium will be held Tuesday, August 5th, 2025. It is a day-long virtual event bringing together professionals around the world to share their expertise on current research, planning, and initiatives surrounding chloride: including snow and ice management, low salt design, water softening, wastewater, agriculture.

The Salt Symposium is an annual event focused on understanding the concerns, research, solutions, and management of chloride use and innovation that can move us to a lower salt future to improve community sustainability and protect vital freshwater systems and infrastructure.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Salt Symposium is featured in a Special Edition of Environmental & Engineering Geoscience (E&EG) Journal. Register now to receive a free copy of this special addition and read about the valuable insights and research it contains.

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Speaker Presentation Info - 2025

This event is live-stream only.

Beginning at: 7:00 AM (All times shown are CDT)

Log in early to test your connection and visit our Sponsors

Connie Fortin headshot

8:00 AM – Welcome from Connie Fortin

Connie Fortin

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

Connie is recognized as a national expert on salt reduction strategies. With 40 years’ of experience, she began her career in the software design industry before leaving to put her energy into protecting the environment and our waters. In 1996, she founded Fortin Consulting with the goal to unite citizens, environmental organization, and industry leaders in protecting freshwater resources. In the beginning of 2022, Fortin Consulting was acquired by Bolton & Menk, Inc. where Connie has been working on integrating her extensive knowledge on chloride and its impacts into the Bolton & Menk’s repertoire. She enjoys finding ways to facilitate change that is both practical and progressive.

Alycia Overbo photo

8:10 AM – Chloride Updates, Initiatives, and Funding

Alycia Overbo

Minnesota Department of Health

Alycia supervises the Communications & Strategic Initiatives Unit in the Drinking Water Protection Program at Minnesota Department of Health. She received her PhD from the Water Resources Sciences program at University of Minnesota, where she researched sources of chloride pollution to Minnesota waters. Alycia received her Master of Science in Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill and Bachelor’s in Biology from St. Olaf College. Her professional and research interests span chloride-related issues and drinking water safety, access, and equity.

Carolyn Dindorf headshot

8:40 AM – Chloride Optimization for Water Softening Installers

Carolyn Dindorf

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

Carolyn Dindorf is a Limnologist and Supervisor of the Science and Chloride Reduction team at Bolton & Menk.  Carolyn’s work revolves around protecting and improving water resources including working with local communities and others to implement chloride reduction strategies and programs for winter maintenance, water softening, and other sources to protect water resources. Carolyn worked with the MPCA and Minnesota Water Quality Association to develop the new Smart Salting for Water Softening training and has partnering with local water conditioning contractors to optimize water softeners for lower salt use.

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9:10 AM – Road Salt and Increasing Radium Concentrations in an Aquifer

Bruce D. Lindsey

U.S. Geological Survey

Presenter bio information coming soon.

9:40 AM | Mid-morning Break

Eric-Faulkner_Ground-Cast
Tyler Buerger photo

10:00 AM – Storm Severity Index: Leveraging Technology to Reduce Salt Use

Eric Faulkner and Tyler Buerger

Vaisala and City of Oak Creek, WI

Eric Faulkner is a Meteorologist & Weather Advisor with Vaisala Xweather.  He has a degree in meteorology from The Ohio State University.  For 14 years, Eric has been helping businesses in a variety of industries to better manage the risk weather poses to their operations – including energy trading, agriculture, oil & gas, renewable energy, utilities, transportation, and government.  Most recently, he has been assisting winter maintenance professionals with weather and road weather education and is advocating for the use of new technology to increase efficiency.  Eric is originally from Pittsburgh, PA but currently resides in Charleston, SC, where he has been for the last 9 years.
 
Tyler serves as the Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Oak Creek, Wisconsin. With over 20 years of experience in municipal operations, he oversees a wide range of public works services, including street maintenance, stormwater maintenance, as well as winter maintenance. Passionate about sustainable practices, Tyler is committed to improving operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impact, especially regarding the use of road salt.
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10:30 AM – Comparing Salt Use on Permeable and Asphalt Parking Lots

Lorna Murison

Credit Valley Conservation, Ontario

Presenter bio information coming soon.

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11:00 AM – Cutting Edges

TBD

TBD

tbd

Presenter bio information coming soon.

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11:30 AM – 5 MINUTE UPDATE: Standardizing Winter Maintenance Terminology

Rick Nelson

AASHTO

Presenter bio information coming soon.

11:40 AM | Mid-day Break for Lunch

Connie Fortin headshot

12:10 PM – Low Salt Design

Connie Fortin

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

Connie is recognized as a national expert on salt reduction strategies. With 40 years’ of experience, she began her career in the software design industry before leaving to put her energy into protecting the environment and our waters. In 1996, she founded Fortin Consulting with the goal to unite citizens, environmental organization, and industry leaders in protecting freshwater resources. In the beginning of 2022, Fortin Consulting was acquired by Bolton & Menk, Inc. where Connie has been working on integrating her extensive knowledge on chloride and its impacts into the Bolton & Menk’s repertoire. She enjoys finding ways to facilitate change that is both practical and progressive.

David Veneziano

12:40 PM – Winter Design for Pedestrian Safety & Chloride Reduction

David Veneziano

Iowa State University

David Veneziano is Safety Circuit Rider with the Iowa Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) at the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University. He has over 18 years of experience in various aspects of transportation research, including winter maintenance safety, operations and equipment, roadway safety and operations, and Intelligent Transportation Systems. In addition, his experience includes outreach and training activities for safety treatments, roadside safety, work zone flagging and safety, and roadway signing and marking.

Carl-Rosen_ball-cap

1:10 PM – Chloride Cycling in Agriculture

Carl Rosen

University of Minnesota

Carl Rosen is a Professor and Extension Soil Scientist in the Department of Soil, Water, & Climate at the University of Minnesota. He received BS and MS degrees in Horticultural Science from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. degree in Soil Science from the University of California, Davis. His research and extension programs in Minnesota have focused on water quality issues related to fertilizer use and use of municipal and industrial by-products as amendments for agricultural soils. He has authored or coauthored numerous publications and extension bulletins about nutrient management, soil fertility, soil health, plant nutrition, and beneficial use of by-products for crop production.

1:40 PM | Afternoon Break

Wyatt Weatherson

2:00 PM – Municipal Decision Making Around Winter Maintenance in Response to Climate

Wyatt Weatherson

Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario

Wyatt is a second-year PhD student in the Environmental Applied Science and Management program at Toronto Metropolitan University. A hydrologist by training, part of Wyatt’s doctoral work seeks to combine quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand the perceived and actual drivers of winter deicer use across Ontario. Using key informant interviews, Wyatt seeks to deepen our collective understanding of management and decision-making processes in the winter maintenance industry to identify gaps in knowledge, and inform subsequent quantitative analyses of historical climate trends. The ultimate goal of this work is to understand how changing spatial and temporal temperature and precipitation patterns will influence the extent of deicer use in Canada.

Andy Erickson

2:30 PM – 5 MINUTE UPDATE: Cold Climate Center of Excellence Update

Andy Erickson

St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, MN

Dr. Andy Erickson is a researcher and engineer at the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. He studies water quality in urban watersheds, develops stormwater assessment and maintenance best practices, and designs innovative stormwater treatment technologies. Andy is co-director of the Cold Climate Center of Excellence for Stormwater Infrastructure Technologies, the Chair of the ASTM International E64 Committee on Stormwater Control Measures, and the Chair for the University of Minnesota’s Water Council. Dr. Erickson is also dedicated to outreach through frequent presentations, workshops, and hosting the popular Minnesota Stormwater Seminar Series

Allison-Madison

2:40 PM – Salt Week Insights

Allison Madison

Wisconsin Salt Wise

Allison Madison is the first-ever staff person at Wisconsin Salt Wise. Since assuming her role in June 2020, she has spearheaded statewide collaboration around salt reduction. Allison graduated from St. Olaf College and has a joint MS. in Environment and Resources and Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin. She’s passionate about protecting Wisconsin’s freshwater resources and celebrating their beauty by paddling, swimming, etc.

Erica Sniegowski photo
Lizzy Boor photo

3:10 PM – Addressing Chloride Reduction through Education, Collaboration, Funding, and Regulation

Erica Sniegowski & Elizabeth Boor

Nine Mile Creek Watershed District, MN

Erica Sniegowski serves as the Administrator for the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District, a local unit of government located in the Twin Cities metro area. She has been involved in the water resources field for over fifteen years, which has included working to address the chloride TMDL on Nine Mile Creek. As administrator, she oversees district operations, leads the staff team, and manages the annual workplan and strategic direction of the organization. Erica holds a MS in Water Resources Science and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota. She has a BS in Biology from Iowa State University.

Lizzy’s educational background is in environmental science, geology, and water resources science and she has been lucky enough to put her passion for environmental stewardship into a career. Lizzy is currently working for the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District where she originally started as a Minnesota GreenCorps member focused on chloride reduction through education and outreach in 2020. Chloride education continues to be part of her career at Nine Mile, and she is forging new paths as the watershed district has become the first to have all its cities trained in Low Salt Design principles.

3:40 PM | Conclusions

Gold Sponsors

Mn MPCA logo
Metropolitan Council logo

Silver Sponsors

Reinders logo
MN Department of Health logo

Bronze Sponsors

Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) logo
Nine mile creek watershed district logo
Capitol Region Watershed District logo
Kuper logo
Lower Minnesota River Watershed District logo
Coon Creek watershed district logo
Minnesota Watersheds logo

Special & Promotional Sponsors

University of Minnesota St Anthony Falls Laboratory logo
Minnesota Erosion Control Association logo
Minnesota GreenStep logo
Stop over salting logo
MN Tap logo
Salt Watch logo
Freshwater logo
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